Ranbaxy set for a big catch in US/Europe

Aim is to move to No.5 in US generics market from current rank of No.8.

Ranbaxy sees itself among the top five players in the US generic drugs market soon mainly on the strength of a big-ticket acquisition that it appears poised to clinch. At present, Ranbaxy is the eighth largest player in the American generic drugs market.

Malvinder Singh, president (pharmaceuticals), Ranbaxy, said the company was "on its way" to be among the top five. Singh has just come back from the US and is going there again next week.

"Global consolidation is going to intensify. Our vision puts us in the top five by 2012 but we need to do it faster. We stand at number eight with $1.2 billion. Between the third and the 10th, there is a gap of barely $1-2 billion," he said.

One big acquisition will catapult Ranbaxy up the ranks, especially as Singh does not rule out acquiring a company as big as Ranbaxy.

"We will be looking at front-end acquisitions in Europe and the US while in India, we will be considering back-end units to strengthen the vertical integration," said Singh, declining to divulge the acquisition target or the time frame for it. Ranbaxy is all set to get some more currency.

On Friday, its board cleared a proposal to raise $1.5 billion through a US listing and another to increase its authorised capital from Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore.

For organic growth, Ranbaxy has lined up a slew of new launches in the US market, even though in the first half of this year, it has launched drugs only half as many as it had in the first half of last year.

"This year saw a cyclical downturn because of fewer drugs going off patents. But next year and in 2007, several drugs are going off patents and we are well positioned to tap the opportunity. Our pipeline is the second best in the world," he said.

The company already has in the queue 11 first-to-file equivalents of generic drugs going off patents, and "many more" are to come this year.