MSD India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the world’s second-largest pharma company, Merck Inc, said on Friday it had no immediate plans to delist its newly-acquired subsidiary, Fulford India.
Speculation of a possible delisting had seen Fulford’s share price soaring to a year’s high of Rs 800 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday.
The $41-billion merger of Merck and Schering-Plough to create the second largest pharma company in the world after Pfizer led to three companies in India coming together — MSD India, Fulford and Organon — with a combined turnover of Rs 500 crore.
Fulford is the only listed entity in the three group companies.
“Our focus is now on integration of operations (of the three companies),” said K G Ananthakrishnan, chief operating officer of MSD India, who also continues to hold the position of managing director in the other two companies. The three companies would, however, continue to be separate legal entities.
“The integration plan will be unveiled in three months,” he added. Globally, the company has estimated that about 15,000 jobs will be lost due to the merger. There will be no major job losses in India, where the combined strength of the three companies is 1,600.
“India being a high growth market, we do not foresee any major layoffs,” said Ananthakrishnan.
The three companies together have a portfolio of about 40 drugs in the country across various therapeutic areas.
MSD India’s former managing director, Naveen Rao, has been elevated as the head of Medical Affairs for MSD’s Asia-Pacific Region, which covers 13 countries, including India. He will continue to be based in India and head a team of 13 medical directors located in each of these countries.
