According to sources, Bayer AG, a German drugmaker is in active talks to acquire consumer healthcare unit of Merck & Co Inc. This deal’s will value the healthcare unit at around $14 billion.

One of the final contenders in the auction, Reckitt Benckiser Group said that it was no longer in talks to acquire the Merck business. This leaves Bayer in the prime position to win the asset. The healthcare business of Merck & Co is best known for Claritin allergy medicine and Coppertone sunscreen.

Merck and Bayer are currently finalizing the terms of the agreement and in the next several days they would announce the deal. Representatives for both Merck and Bayer declined to comment.

The auction of Merck also drew interest from several other consumer and healthcare giants including Sanofi SA, Procter & Gamble Co, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim.

The impending sale emphasizes drugmakers’ efforts to increase their best businesses and to offload their weaker businesses as the drug industry struggles with cuts in healthcare spending and generic competition.

Bayer has a strong portfolio of consumer products including antacid Alka-Seltzer and pain medication Aleve. However it is looking at deals to expand the business further. In 2012 for Schiff Nutrition International Inc, Bayer lost a bidding war with Reckitt, which for $1.3 billion had agreed to sell to the British consumer products group.

The acquisition would be the latest in a slew of healthcare deals, including Zimmer Holdings Inc’s $13.35 billion acquisition of Biomet Inc, Eli Lilly and Co buying Novartis’ animal health business for $5.4 billion and the agreement between Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc to trade more than $20 billion in assets.

The deal surge has driven healthcare mergers and acquisitions volumes to $153.3 billion so far this year. Pharmaceutical deals have accounted for 71 percent of overall healthcare deals.