Generic Drug Firm to Merge With Dye Maker : Pharmaceuticals: Ivax, Hafslund hope their diverse businesses will help them fend off competition.

NEW YORK —  Two very different drug companies from separate parts of the globe agreed to merge Wednesday, hoping their diverse businesses will help profit growth in an era of heavy competition.

The stock swap deal would unite Miami-based Ivax Corp., the biggest seller of low-cost generic drugs, and Hafslund Nycomed of Oslo. Hafslund is the biggest maker of “contrast imaging agents,” the chemical dyes swallowed by or injected into patients to make their organs visible in X-rays and computer images such as magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound.

The merger would continue a consolidation trend in the health care industry, as companies seek to grow or diversify to remain competitive at a time when demands for lower-priced care are squeezing profits.

It would create an enterprise with a combined stock market value of $6.5 billion--$3.6 billion from Ivax and $2.9 billion from Hafslund Nycomed.

Although executives billed the deal as a merger of equals, the new company, Ivax Nycomed Corp., is to be incorporated in Florida and chaired by Ivax Chairman Phillip Frost.

Hafslund Nycomed’s lead product, Omnipaque, has a 40% world market share for X-ray imaging and $1 billion in sales annually. It also has a generic drug business that sells mostly in Europe and Japan.

Shareholders of both companies would get a share of Ivax Nycomed for each share they currently hold. Hafslund Nycomed also runs a hydroelectric power company in Norway that accounts for about 10% of revenue; it is not part of the deal.

Ivax shares dropped $3.375 to $28.125 on the American Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Hafslund’s U.S. shares soared $3.50 to $31.875 on the New York Stock Exchange.