Piramal Healthcare Ltd, one of India's largest pharmaceutical and healthcare company and part of diversified Piramal Group, has acquired Cipla’s emergency contraceptive product (ECP) brand i-pill for Rs 95 crore.
The brand has achieved sales of over Rs 30 crore in the last 12 months, said a Cipla statement.
Cipla said, the move of divesting the brand is in line with company’s plan to focus on prescription drugs. Kotak Investment has acted as financial advisor to Cipla in this transaction.
The shares of Cipla were traded at Rs 341.70, up by Rs 8.20 or 2.46% at 4:09 pm in the BSE.
For Piramal, the acquisition strengthens its over the counter (OTC) portfolio. It currently has OTC brands such as skin care range Lacto Calamine, Supractiv Complete, Saridon and antacid brand Polycrol.
The OTC market in India is estimated at around $1.8 billion and is growing at 18% annually. Ajay Piramal, chairman, Piramal Healthcare Ltd, said, in the statement, “We believe the OTC segment is still in its nascent stages in India and offer high growth opportunities.” He also said that the ECP segment was pegged at Rs 100 crore and had been growing at 250% over the last two years.
Piramal Healthcare is one of the largest custom manufacturing companies globally, and has presence in North America, Europe and Asia. In the last financial year, it has posted net sales of $656 million.
Piramal Healthcare has earlier acquired US-based RxElite Holdings, the inhalation anaesthetic gas distribution arm of RxElite in 2009. Prior to that, it acquired Minrad International, a pain management company and a provider of generic inhalation anesthetics in New York.
