Drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has acquired 14 established prescription brands from Novartis AG and Novartis Pharma AG in Japan for $293 million (around ₹1,944 crore).

Sun is not new to big ticket overseas acquisitions, the last one being the $454-million buy of Israeli drugmaker Taro.

In fact, about a year ago, Sun closed its $4 billion merger of troubled domestic drug company Ranbaxy as well.

On the latest buy, a note late on Tuesday night from Sun said the Novartis brands had combined annualised revenues of approximately $160 million and address medical conditions across several therapeutic areas.

Sun did not disclose the segments these brands belonged to. It did not comment on how it would fund the acquisition either.

Under the terms of the agreements, Novartis will continue to distribute these brands, for a certain period, pending transfer of all marketing authorisations to Sun Pharma’s subsidiary.

The acquired brands will be marketed by a local marketing partner under the Sun Pharma label, it added.

Strategic market Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director, Sun Pharma, said that Japan was a strategic market for the company.

“This acquisition marks Sun Pharma’s foray into the Japanese prescription market and provides us an opportunity to build a larger product portfolio in the future,” he added.

Industry estimates peg the Japanese pharmaceutical market at $73 billion, accounting for over seven per cent of the $1-trillion global pharmaceutical market.

But the Japanese market is not an easy one to navigate and Lupin is one of the industry’s notable names present in this market.

jyothi.datta@thehindu.co.in

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