Drugmaker CEOs Grilled by Analysts Who Want Cash Spent on Deals

Pharma investors are frustrated.

After finally winning the lower tax rates they long championed, the world’s biggest drugmakers are now being pressed to do something with their savings. That’s put chief executive officers on the defensive as they argue that the companies they want to buy are simply too expensive.

CEOs from pharmacy giants Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. came under the gun on their quarterly earnings calls last week. Analysts didn’t just want to know what types of deals they were interested in doing; they wanted to know how big they would be. Neither CEO would take the ...