Dabur Pharma has sold its entire non-oncology business to Alembic for approximately Rs 167 crore (Rs 1.67 billion). With the deal, Dabur becomes the country's first and only speciality drug company that focuses strictly on a single disease, cancer.

The company is now looking at speeding up its global expansion plans in the oncology segment. It is in talks with companies and research organisations in the US and the EU for research tie-ups and also possible acquisitions.

The acquisition of Dabur's non-oncology drug business will help Alembic increase its turnover by around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) this year.

The transaction, likely to be completed in about two months, is to be funded through a combination of internal accruals and debt.

Commenting on the deal, Ajay K Vij, chief operating officer, Dabur Pharma, said the amount from the sale of its non-oncology products would be primarily utilised for augmenting marketing infrastructure in developed countries.

"We are also looking at acquisitions of companies that have marketing as well as manufacturing capabilities. For instance, if acquiring a manufacturing facility in China makes business sense, we would be open to that," he said.

Dabur is also in advanced stages of talks with research organisations in the UK and the US. "We are in talks with several research institutions in Europe and US for collaborative research programmes. We have signed confidentiality agreements with some of them". Anand Burman, chairman, Dabur Pharma said.

He did not divulge more details as company has signed confidentiality agreements with the institutions.

The sale of the products however has no asset implication as Dabur had been merely outsourcing its non-core products from contract manufacturers. Dabur's non-oncology business had a net sales of Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million) for nine months ended December 2006 and is expected to post a sale of Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) for the full year.

Chirayu Amin, chairman and managing director, Alembic Ltd, said the acquisition will enhance Alembic's domestic market share. "Alembic is augmenting its presence in the international as well as the domestic pharma space. This strategic acquisition is to enhance our domestic market share by entering prospective therapy segments. Alembic will aggressively pursue its strategic goals through organic and inorganic initiatives in the near future." He said.