Drugmaker Cipla has inked its third deal in less than a week, all aimed at beefing up its capacity in the respiratory products segment.

On Friday, Cipla said it had entered into an agreement with partner Biopharm SPA to establish a joint venture (jv) company in Algeria.

The company would manufacture and market respiratory products facilitating Cipla’s front-end presence in Algeria, the company said.

Executed through its wholly owned subsidiary, Cipla (EU) Ltd will hold a 40 per cent stake in the joint venture, while the rest will be held by a Biopharm-led Algerian consortium.

The joint venture company is expected to make an investment of up to $ 15 million in the construction of a manufacturing facility, it added.

Cipla is expected to make an initial investment of $6 million (about ₹36 crore) in the venture.

ARV contract In a separate development, Cipla said that it had been awarded a contract under the ARV (anti-retroviral) tender of the Global Fund to supply anti-AIDS medicines worth $188.95 million. Cipla has been selected as a “panel supplier” in the supplier partnership agreement, the company said, adding that the contract was effective from the January 1, 2015, for a three-year period.

The supplies would begin from the fourth quarter of the financial year 2015, Cipla said, adding that the ARV drugs would be manufactured at Cipla’s manufacturing facilities in India that had been approved by various international regulatory agencies.

Cipla has been associated with Global Fund since 2002. And last year, Cipla was one of the suppliers awarded a long-term contract for supplying anti-malarial drugs.

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