Indian pharmaceutical major Strides Arcolab will acquire a generic pharmaceutical business of Aspen Pharmacare in Australia with certain branded pharmaceutical assets for Australian $380 million (around Rs.1,910 crore).
A statement from Strides said its wholly owned subsidiaries, Strides Pharma Global Pte Ltd., Singapore and Strides (Australia) Pharma Pty Ltd. signed definitive agreements with certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Johannesburg (South Africa)-listed Aspen.
The business will operate under the Arrow Pharmaceuticals brand and will sell around 140 generic prescription drugs and a range of non-prescription pharmacy products.
The assets being acquired will give Strides one of the largest pharmaceutical product portfolios in the Australian market.
The acquired products had sales of around Australian $120 million (Rs.600 crore) in the past financial year with an operating margin of around 31 per cent. The acquisition will include access to the product pipeline that was under development by Aspen and includes a number of major product launches in the next six months.
Strides’ previous business in Australian generic pharma market Ascent Pharmahealth was sold to Actavis in January 2012 and the new Arrow Pharmaceuticals business will be led by Dennis Bastas, the previous founder and CEO of Ascent Pharmahealth.
“The Australian generic pharmaceutical market has always been very successful for Strides. The Aspen Australian generic pharmaceutical assets are a valuable and unique platform for Strides to re-build its business in Australia,” Arun Kumar, Group CEO, Strides Arcolab, said in a statement.
