No more waiting for the Sun: FTC approves $4bn Ranbaxy acquisition
Almost a year after announcing it was to buy Ranbaxy from Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo, Sun Pharma has closed the deal to form India’s largest drugmaker and the world’s fifth largest specialty generics pharmaceutical company.
The closure came after Sun divested its generic minocycline business to India-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals, settling charges by the FTC that the acquisition would likely be anticompetitive.
As part of the FTC’s conditions, Sun Pharma will continue to manufacture minocycline capsules to Torrent to enable Torrent to obtain regulatory approval for its tablets as quickly as Ranbaxy would have absent the deal. The broad-spectrum tetracycline antibiotic is also made for the US market by Dr. Reddy’s and Par Pharmaceuticals.
With the closure of the deal, Sun can commence the integration of Ranbaxy which, according to Chairman Israel Makov, “will capitalize on the expanded global footprint and enhance [its] dominance as a world leader in the specialty generics landscape.”
Ranbaxy has been hit by a number of quality issues over the past few years and a number of its manufacturing facilities in India were placed under a US Consent Decree in 2012.
But according to Sun Pharma, assuring quality is one of three key priorities to drive growth in the combined entity, along with increasing R&D and strengthening its business growth in several major markets.
“We will continue to focus on gaining trust of the regulators globally while continuing to develop products based on patient needs and leverage them to become brand leaders globally,” said Dilip Shanghvi, Sun’s Managing Director.
