Cipla, the largest domestic drug maker, would invest $65 million (over Rs 300 crore) in three years to acquire a 40 per cent stake in an Indian biotech company and 25 per cent stake in a similar company in Hong Kong, as part of its foray into biosimilars or generics of off-patent biotech drugs.
The company board today approved the acquisitions through subscription of fresh shares in both companies. While the Indian biotech company is setting up a facility for biosimilar products in Goa, the Hong Kong-based company is setting up a biotech plant at Shanghai in China, through a wholly-owned subsidiary. Cipla will have rights to market biosimilar products of the companies in India and international markets. Cipla did not disclose the names of the companies.
About 10-15 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market consists of drugs of biotech origin and many of them are expected to go off-patent in the coming years. The combined market for biosimilars, also known as follow-on biologics, is expected to touch $21 billion by 2015 in the US and Europe. Further, about 30 per cent of the new drug approvals by the drug regulatory authorities of the US and Europe in the last few years are of biotech origin.
Indian companies — including Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Reliance Life Sciences, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Wockhardt and Biocon — are developing a large portfolio of biotech drugs.
crackcrack| Company Name | CMP |
|---|---|
| Sun Pharma Inds. | 1668.00 |
| Dr. Reddys Lab | 1232.25 |
| Cipla | 1228.90 |
| Zydus Lifesciences | 936.35 |
| Lupin | 2328.60 |
| View more.. | |
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