A pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Aurobindo Pharma Limited has reportedly signed a well-defined deal for the purpose of acquiring the business of Apotex International Inc. in five European countries for $86.5 million (€74 million).
The countries in which the Hyderabad-based company is looking forward to acquiring the commercial operations and certain supporting infrastructure are Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium.
“The acquisition will extend and diversify Aurobindo’s European product portfolio by adding over 200 generics and more than 80 over-the-counter products that had total sales of 133 million euros in the year ending March 2018,” Aurobindo Pharma stated.
The basic aim of the company behind this acquisition deal is to make its European business stronger and accelerate its growth in all aspects. Also, the Indian drugmaker wants to expand in Eastern Europe’s generics drug market.
Aurobindo will take over the commercial infrastructure, including experienced personnel, products, marketing authorizations and dossier license rights in these countries.
In the Netherlands, the company will become the leading OTC company by volume after this acquisition. In the case of Spain, the deal will strengthen the company’s position in the generics market. The acquisition will provide Aurobindo with an entry into the retail generics space in Belgium, where it will come under the top 5 players segment.
Though some of these businesses are currently facing losses, Aurobindo Pharma expects “them to return to profitability when combined with its vertically integrated platform and existing commercial infrastructure”.
The drug manufacturer will also get access to a pipeline of over 20 products which are anticipated to be introduced in the coming two years. The deal is conditional on clearances from Dutch and Polish competition authorities.
Aurobindo Pharma at present has an existence in nine European countries that include Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, UK, and Romania. It witnessed sales of around 577 million euros from Europe in the last fiscal.