Three lions and a dog: Three healthcare companies you cannot buy - and one you do not want

The Merchants trust's Simon Gergel explains why investing in one of the UK's biggest healthcare stocks - GlaxoSmithKline - is not as simple as many investors envisage

The following three British companies may not be the lions on the English football team's shirts, but they are all global leaders in their fields. They have excellent and defendable competitive positions, good growth prospects and a high intrinsic value - yet they cannot be bought on the stockmarket. The final company can be bought, but has a terrible stockmarket reputation with a share price that has gone nowhere for ten years. However, these companies are linked in an intriguing way. My first 'lion' is one of the world's leading vaccine companies, with sales of £3.7bn, supplying vac...