GlaxoSmithKline eyes Indian deal
pharmafile | September 23, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing | GSK, India
GlaxoSmithKline is said to be looking to buy an Indian firm, according to reports in one of the country's largest business newspapers.
Mint, which has a content deal with the Wall Street Journal, said GSK had brought in investment bank Lazard and Co to look at possible buys in the subcontinent.
The report suggests that either Piramal Healthcare or Dr Reddy's Laboratories will be the target.
None of the companies involved has made a public statement confirming the speculation.
In February, Mumbai-based Piramal told the Wall Street Journal that reports it was on the point of selling to a pharma company were "totally unfounded".
The $600 million turnover firm looks an attractive target, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia.
Reports at the time suggested a price tag of around $1.5 billion, with GSK and Sanofi-Aventis mooted as potential buyers.
GSK is one of Piramal's biggest customers for contract manufacturing.
Western pharma groups have expressed an interest in India for a variety of reasons, not least because it is poised to become one of the world's biggest drug markets in the next few decades.
And while it is set to triple in value to $20 billion by 2015, it is also a magnet for low-cost manufacturing and research and development.
The country already has a solid manufacturing base, and a relatively untapped supply of trial participants and research scientists.
Indian firms have already proved attractive to global companies.
In 2008 Ranbaxy was bought by Japanese pharma company Daiichi Sankyo, while Pfizer is involved in an extended collaboration with Aurobindo.
Piramal has contract development and manufacturing facillities, basing its research on four therapeutic areas: cancer, diabetes, inflammation and infectious diseases.
It also has drug discovery and development deals with Lilly and Merck.
Meanwhile, Dr Reddy's has six plants in India, one in Mexico, a UK plant in Mirfield in Yorkshire and plans to expand further in the EU.
It already has partnerships with companies in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands, and has acquired German generics company betapharm Arzneimittel.
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