Ranbaxy inks pact to buy RPG Aventis, arm, French arm

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's largest pharmaceutical company, has signed an agreement to buy RPG (Aventis) SA along with its fully owned subsidiary, OPIH SARL, in France.

The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. The sale is subject to the legal process of consultation with employee representatives. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2004, subject to requisite approvals.

The sale of RPG (Aventis) in France (the only Aventis generic business) reflects Aventis' commitment to focus on its core strategic activities.

Ranbaxy ranks among the world's leading generic companies and offers real opportunities for RPG (Aventis) to complement its range of products and secure development resources in a rapidly developing market.

RPG (Aventis) was ranked fifth in the French generic market with sales of 44 million euros for the year ended December 2002.

"A wide-ranging pipeline of 52 molecules with 18 out of the 20 best selling molecules represents its strong product portfolio. The company is known as a reputed high quality and reliable generic player and develops products strictly comparable to the original drugs (an important factor for pharmacists to convince patients to switch)," a Ranbaxy release said adding: "The major therapeutic areas of the company include cardiovasculars, anti-infectives, gastro-intestinals, rheumatoid/non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, neurology and analgesics."

France is the 4th largest pharma market globally with sales of $19.2 billion, growing at 4 per cent annually and constituting 4.8 per cent of the world pharmaceutical market. The generics market in France is about 652 million euros and is the 5th largest after US, Japan, Germany and UK.

"The market has an excellent growth potential," the release added.

Commenting on the announcement, D S Brar, CEO & managing director, Ranbaxy, said: "France is strategic to our European expansion plans. The acquisition of RPG (Aventis) will be a very important move for Ranbaxy as it would place us amongst the top generic companies in the French market".

Aventis is dedicated to treating and preventing disease to discovering and developing innovative prescription drugs and human vaccines.

In 2002, Aventis generated sales of 17.6 billion euros, invested 3.1 billion euros in research and development and employs approximately 71,000 people in its core business.