India's biggest drugmaker Ranbaxy on Thursday acquired the 10th largest generic company in Belgium, Ethimed NV, for an undisclosed sum, a day after it shelled out $324 million to buy Terapia in Romania.
"Ethimed offers Ranbaxy a ready and robust distribution network to exploit new product opportunities in the future. It also provides the company, a strong base from where we can manage and expand our operations in the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) countries. We see this acquisition as strategic to our business in Europe," Peter Burema, president, Ranbaxy Europe, CIS, Africa and Latin America, said.
Ranbaxy said the acquisition of Ethimed will give it 20 registered products apart from providing strategic market access and distribution network for Benelux countries.
The Belgium market is largely a branded, high priced market with increasing generic penetration. The acquisition positions Ranbaxy favourably to capture a significant portion of this expanding market, the company said.
It is the intention of Ranbaxy to manage operations in the Benelux territories out of Ethimed in Belgium, it added.
Belgium is the 7th largest pharmaceutical market in Europe and the Netherlands is the 6th largest market with a combined market size including Luxembourg, of $7.6 billion.
