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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

MUMBAI: UK drug maker AstraZeneca has divested its brands in anti-infective and women’s health portfolio to Zydus Healthcare, a subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare as the company narrows down its therapy areas.

As part of the agreement, AZ will sell the following brands of Bricarex, Bricarex-A, Bricanyl, Xylocard, Ceriviprime, Prostodin, Partocin and Primiprost in India to Zydus Healthcare, these brands were discontinued by the company in Indian market.

“This agreement reinforces AstraZeneca India’s strategy to sharpen focus and investment in its three main therapy areas; Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, Oncology and Respiratory while realizing value from the strong portfolio of established brands outside these therapy areas”, AZ said in an email to ET.

Cadila has mostly focussed on buying popular brands and small size drug companies in the domestic market in niche areas like gastro and antibiotic segments. It is one of the few Indian companies to have a head start in the biosimilar drugs market which earned revenues worth Rs 3 billion in 2015 for Cadila. This will be the second acquisition for the company this year, last week the company announced that it will acquire US based Sentynl for an undisclosed amount.