GSK takes on generics by paying $23m for new unit
July 3, 2009
By Trista Kelley London
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had expanded into generic drugs by paying $23.2 million (R180m) for a Bristol-Myers Squibb division in the Middle East and north Africa, the UK-based drug maker said yesterday.
The unit had 13 branded generic remedies with sales worth $11.8m last year in Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
The purchase is at least the fourth emerging markets acquisition in the past year by Glaxo. Chief executive Andrew Witty is expanding in generics and developing countries to offset sales declines as bestselling products lose patent protection.
The deal "yet again shows Witty's commitment to accelerating the firm's expansion in the emerging markets and also the attractiveness of branded generics in such high-growth regions," Simon Mather, an analyst at WestLB in London, said yesterday.
In December Witty paid $36.5m for Bristol-Myers' Pakistan unit, after purchasing the New York-based drug maker's Egyptian firm in October for $210m. In January, Glaxo agreed to buy a drug portfolio from UCB in Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America for e515m (R5.6billion).
Last month Glaxo started a venture with Dr Reddy's Laboratories to market 100 of the Indian firm's products in emerging markets outside the south Asian country. The collaboration follows Glaxo's agreement in May to extend a deal to supply generic versions of its medicines to South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare, the largest maker of generics in the southern hemisphere. - Bloomberg
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