Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Torrent Pharma bids $5-6 bn for Merck's generics business; Ranbaxy pulls out

Two surprising developments have taken place with the Merck deal. Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals has reportedly emerged as one of the aggressive bidders for German pharma major Merck’s generics business. Torrent has valued Merck Generics at a whopping $5-6 bn. Torrent has made the bid with the help of private equity funds. With this, Torrent joins the league of global pharma giants like Teva, Mylan Laboratories, Novartis and Actavis who are in vying for Merck's generics business. At the home turf, it is pitted against pharma companies Cipla and Ranbaxy.

Also, it has been learnt that Ranbaxy is pulling out of Merck bid on account of concerns of over-valuation. Ranbaxy was being advised by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup on the deal.

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