According to Bloomberg News, citing two unnamed ‘inside’ sources, drug biggie Pfizer is looking to broaden its generic drug business, by making a 3 million Euro ($4.08 billion) offer for the Germany-based generic-drug maker Ratiopharm.

The New York-based Pfizer, which is reportedly gearing up for its bid for Ratiopharm this week, Pfizer will compete with two other big generic-drug makers who are in the fray for Ratiopharm’s takeover – namely, Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, and Iceland’s Actavis Group.

Thus far, the highest bidder for Ratiopharm – which was put up for sale by the company’s heir Ludwig Merckle, in an attempt to pay back debts after his father Adolf Merckle’s suicide in January last year - is Actavis, which has made a $4.12 billion offer for the company.

Meanwhile, endeavoring to expand its generic drug business since 2008, Pfizer is expecting its worldwide generic business to grow to $500 billion by 2012, vis-à-vis its 2006 figures of $270 billion.

The reports of the emergence of Pfizer as a prospective bidder for Ratiopharm come amid a flurry of recent deal-related action in the pharmaceutical industry – while Merck of Germany is pursuing a $7.2 billion acquisition of Millipore, an American provider of tools and services for bioscience companies; Japanese drug maker Astellas Pharma Monday unveiled a $3.5-billion hostile bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals.