India’s biggest generic drug maker, Ranbaxy Laboratories, said yesterday it had sold 25% of its newly acquired Be-Tabs to black-owned Com- munity Investment Holdings (CIH).
The deal is estimated to be worth about R125m, and follows CIH’s purchase of a 30% stake in Ranbaxy’s South African AIDS drug distributor Sonke Pharmaceuticals last year.
CIH is headed by doctor-turned-entrepreneur Anna Mokgokong, and has investments in technology, logistics and health.
Although Ranbaxy first announced its plans to buy Be-Tabs, SA’s biggest penicillin maker, six months ago, the R500m deal was signed off only last week after it had been cleared by the Competition Commission.
The acquisition means Ranbaxy is now SA’s fifth-biggest generic drug maker. The two largest are Aspen Pharmacare and Adcock Ingram, a division of Tiger Brands. Generics account for about 35% of the R14bn local medicines market.
The Be-Tabs deal is important for Ranbaxy as it establishes local manufacturing capacity for the Indian-based company.
The acquisition also strengthens Ranbaxy’s presence in the generic market for medicines used to treat acute conditions as well as the market in over-the-counter preparations that are sold without prescriptions.
Ranbaxy SA’s CEO, Desmond Brothers, said Ranbaxy Laboratories planned a major upgrade of Be-Tabs’ manufacturing facility in Roodeport.
Ranbaxy intended to retain the Be-Tabs brand as it was well established in SA, particularly among dispensing doctors, said Brothers.
The facility would eventually produce Ranbaxy ’s anti-AIDS drugs for the South African market, and might supply other products to its international operations, Bloom-berg reported Peter Burema, president of Ranbaxy Europe’s global pharmaceutical unit, as saying last week.
Ranbaxy said the acquisition of Be-Tabs was projected to double its South African earnings. Ranbaxy indicated it planned to include SA in tests on potential new products.
“Very few generic clinical trials are performed locally and Ranbaxy is excited to be able to offer this service to health-care practitioners.It will allow the South African medical fraternity the chance to take a much closer look at the use of specific drugs and to establish the efficacy of results to their satisfaction,” Burema said in an e-mailed statement.
Ranbaxy SA is owned by Ranbaxy Netherlands, which is in turn a subsidiary of Indian-based Ranbaxy Laboratories. Ranbaxy SA holds the 70% stake in Sonke, while the 75% slice of Be-Tabs is held by Ranbaxy Netherlands.
Source : Business Day