Sandoz empire builds with Sabex buy
with the purchase of Canadian generic drugmaker Sabex Holdings for
$565 million (€459m) in cash, bringing in a new range of injectable
products.
Headquartered in Quebec, Sabex is a privately held generics manufacturer with sales of nearly $90 million in fiscal 2003-2004.
The expansion into Canada follows on the heels of a major expansion for Sandoz in Austria, Slovenia and Poland to ramp up generics production, as well as the 2002 acquisition of Croatia's Lek.
Sandoz has said that it plans to grow its business through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisition. It is currently the number two ranked generics company in the world after Israel's Teva - itself having completed a string of acquisitions including the $3.4 billion takeover of Sicor - and once the Sabex purchase is complete will be number six in Canada.
"The acquisition of Sabex provides Sandoz with a leadership position in injectable generics in Canada and a platform to build a generic injectables business globally, particularly in the rapidly growing US market," said Christian Seiwald, Sandoz' chief executive.
The deal gives Sandoz an operational presence in Canada, the sixth largest market for generics in the world.
Between 2003 and 2010, peak sales of US branded injectable medicines losing patent protection is estimated at $14 billion compared with 2002 sales of more than $7 billion. Sales are highly concentrated in the top 20 brands, which make up 80 per cent of the total branded sales going off patent.
