When Lupin announced the acqusition of Laboratorios Grin S.A. De C.V. (Grin) last week it said the deal - which included a Mexico City facility, 275-strong workforce and Central and Latin America cusomter base - granted it access to Mexico's $275m (€199m) eye drug market.
But the ophthalmic sector was not the only driver according to a Lupin spokesman who told in-Pharmatechnologist.com: “The Grin Acquisition marks Lupin’s foray into the high growth Mexican market and gives us a bridgehead into the larger Latin American pharmaceuticals market.”
He added that: “We would definitely continue to see ophthalmic drug products developed and manufactured by Grin. Furthermore we see a lot of synergies wherein we would also bring our Ophthalmic pipeline to build the Grin business as well as leverage their commercial presence to enter other new promising therapy segments.”
Lupin’s current business in Latin America is based on generic anti-tuberculosis drugs, which it supplies to several countries both independently and as part of the World Health Organisation’s Global Drug Facility (GDF) TB eradication effort.
The firm's ophthalmology portfolio includes a generic version of Allergan’s bacterial conjunctivitis treatment Zymaxid (gatifloxacin ophthalmic solution, 0.5%), which was launched in the US by the its subsidiary last October.
APIs and specialty formulations
However, as the spokesman explained, Lupin also supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to several Latin American countries and, as a result of the Grin deal, plans to “we would seek ways to increase the supply of our APIs into the Latin American markets.”
He added that: “the focus would remain on growing our specialty formulations business in Mexico and LatAm.”
The deal comes just a month or so after the Indian generics firm bought its way into the complex injectables pace through the acquisition of Dutch delivery technology company Nanomi BV.