Ranbaxy closes Terapia deal after Romanian nod

Ranbaxy Laboratories has completed the acquisition of 96.7 per cent stake in Romanian Terapia SA (Terapia) after securing the approval by the Romanian Competition Council. In its biggest acquisition thus far, Ranbaxy had lapped up Terapia for $324 million in March this year.

Malvinder Singh, chief executive officer and managing director, said, "With the completion of transaction, Romania now becomes the third-largest market for us in terms of revenue. We view developing our operations here as a strategic hub for Europe and the CIS."

Ranbaxy, through this acquisition, has gained access to Terapia' s product basket of 157 marketing authorisations with a strong focus on fast growing segments of CVS, CNS & musculoskeletal therapeutic segments.

The pro form a gross sales of Terapia in 2005 were approximately $80 million. The combination of Terapia with Ranbaxy's existing Romanian activities has created a leading generics company in the Romanian market and is expected to boost Ranbaxy's presence in the fast growing CIS markets, stated a Ranbaxy release.

Earlier, Ranbaxy Laboratories had signed a marketing licensing agreement with Hyderabad-based Zenotech Laboratories to market generic formulations of 11 oncology products in the US and Canadian markets under its own label.

Zenotech, as per the agreement, would be responsible for manufacturing, developing and obtaining regulatory approval for the products.

As per IMS-MAT March, 2006 figures, the market potential of the combined products is $3.7 billion. The financial arrangement between the companies were not disclosed.

"We anticipate a number of additional products materialising in the days ahead as a result of this mutually beneficial partnership," according to Singh.

The drugs would be marketed by Ranbaxy's wholly owned subsidiary in US, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc (RPI) and would enhance our product portfolio in these markets, according to a Ranbaxy spokesperson.

The pharma major is keen on leveraging the opportunities arising out of in-licensing in India and abroad.

It signed a marketing agreement to market and distribute Ethypharm LL India's Novel Drug Delivery System (NDDS) analgesic, Tramadol 50 mg in the Indian market.

This was preceded by a similar arrangement with Netherlands-based Eurodrug Laboratories, for its asthma product Doxophylline.

As more in-licensing agreements are expected to materialise this year, Ranbaxy seems to have embarked on a definitive strategy of portfolio enhancement through such agreements.

Commenting on the agreement, Jayaram Chigurupati, Chief Executive Officer, Zenotech Labs said, "This agreement accelerates Zenotech Labs's ability to develop products which are specifically intended for North American markets that continue to have clinical value to patients and prescribers."

Zenotech is a specialty generic injectables company with a biotech core and its high value injectables product portfolios serve niche therapy areas like oncology, anesthesiology, gynecology, and neurology.