Apotex has acquired Spanish generic drugmaker Lareq Pharma in a bid to expand its presence in Western Europe.
Lareq is the 13th-largest player in the Spanish retail pharmacy generics segment, while Spain is the seventh-largest pharmaceutical market in the world, Apotex said.
“The Spanish generics market is a fast-growing market, and all the major international generics competitors are present here,” Andrew Kay, president of Apotex International, said.
Furthermore, the Canadian firm said it sees Western Europe as a launching pad for the products in development for the European market. Last month Apotex announced plans to acquire Topgen, the seventh largest generic drugmaker in Belgium. The company did not disclose the price of either acquisition.
Apotex also has presence in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. The company said it plans to spend $2 billion on R&D over the next 10 years, and it currently has more than 600 products in development.
Analysts at the International Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance’s annual conference last week said that because growth of the U.S. pharmaceutical market is expected to slow down, it is a good idea for companies to go global. “There’s a huge growth opportunity outside the U.S.,” Randall Stanicky, vice president of global investment research at Goldman Sachs, said. — Breda Lund
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