The Hindu Business Line : Torrent to buy Pfizer's drug co in Germany

THE Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd has got the green signal from its board of directors to acquire Heumann Pharma GmbH & Co Generica KG, a generic drug company with the Pfizer group.

The acquisition will give Torrent a footprint in Germany.

Germany is 8-billion-euro market for generic drugs and is touted to be the European Union's biggest, with high generic penetration.

Other domestic drug companies, including Ranbaxy and Wockhardt, are known to be scouting for acquisition opportunities in Germany.

Torrent's wholly owned subsidiary, Torrent Pharma GmbH & Co Generica KG, will make the acquisition, the company told the BSE. It did not disclose how much it has forked out for the acquisition.

Heumann Pharma Generics had sales of 50 million euros for the fiscal ended Nov 30, 2004 and is ranked 11th in the German generic market, the company said.

The acquisition would, however, not include the manufacturing facilities of Heumann, which will be retained by Heumann PCS GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pfizer group. Heumann Pharma Generics will source its products partly from Pfizer's Heumann PCS GmbH manufacturing facility in Germany and partly from third party manufacturers, the notice said.

As part of the agreement, Heumann Pharma Generics will continue to procure part of its requirements of formulations from Heumann PCS GmbH for a specified period.

Support will be provided by Pfizer entities in Germany till April 2006 to facilitate smooth transition, the announcement said.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to be completed by August this year.

Torrent will now have access to the 90-year-old Heumann brand name, 315 marketing authorisations, and 34 product registration applications.

Cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and anti-infective therapies constitute around 75 per cent of Heumann's portfolio.

The acquisition is expected to take Torrent's consolidated global sales on an annualised basis to Rs 1,000 crore.

International business, currently at 24 per cent, is expected to grow to 50 per cent as a result of this acquisition, the company said.

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