By IANS,
Mumbai : Pharma major Zydus Cadila has acquired a 100 percent stake in Spanish pharmaceutical firm Laboratories Combix, the company announced Friday.
The acquisition paves the way for the Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila to enter the $1.7 billion Spanish market, reportedly growing at 21.5 percent.
Giving details about the Spanish pharmaceutical firm, the company stated that the two-year-old Laboratories Combix has a pure generics focus and a range of products pending launches.
Commenting on the takeover, Zydus chairman and managing director Pankaj Patel said in an official statement that the acquisition allows Zydus to jumpstart its business.
“Moreover, Zydus having entered French generics market in 2003, an entry into Spain forms a critical part of the firm’s European expansion strategy,” he said.
Citing reasons for strategic acquisitions, the company reasoned that the green field strategy adopted by some firms to enter new markets “was time consuming”.
Zydus started entering foreign markets in 2003 with the strategic acquisition of French pharma company Alpharma. Thereafter, the group acquired Nippon Universal Pharmaceuticals of Japan and Quimica e Farmaceutica Nikkho do Brasil Ltd of Brazil last year.
The company said that with operations spread across the US, Europe, Japan, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa, the group’s formulation exports in 2007-08 grew by 72 percent.