For Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's top drug maker by sales, it was yet another move towards becoming a truly global player as it announced splendid performance for the fiscal year 2006, with robust sales across markets of US, BRICS, Africa, Latin America, Middle East and the Asia-Pacific. This comes as a big relief for the drug major, as it has had to face tough times in the recent past owing to several patent-related cases in developed markets like the US. The company, which is currently the 10th largest generics drug maker in the world, aims to be among the top five, globally, with revenue of $5 bn by 2012. To achieve that objective, Ranbaxy continues to push its acquisition-led growth strategy, which saw it clinching a string of deals last year alone, snapping companies from Spain to Italy, Belgium to South Africa. Thus, it acquired the unbranded generics business of AllenSpA (a division of GlaxoSmithKline) in Italy, made an outright purchase of Romanian generics maker Terapia and Ethimed NV in Belgium, and recently Be-Tabs in South Africa.
Besides, Ranbaxy has recently signed a new multi-year R&D agreement with GSK. Under this new agreement, which is the expansion of the terms of their strategic alliance signed in 2003, the Indian drug maker will garner over $100 mn in payments for a product developed by it and subsequently launched by GSK. "I believe the agreement with GSK is pathbreaking and acknowledges the higher level of R&D maturity prevalent today in our state-of-the-art labs in India", explains the CEO. The company is also focusing on streamlining its costs and underlying organizational structures to achieve greater efficiencies, in tune with the dynamics of a fast changing global market player. |
