Ranbaxy drugs sold in the United States will be gradually rebranded as Sun Pharma treatments
Sun Pharmaceutical said Ranbaxy shareholders will get 0.8 Sun Pharma shares for each Ranbaxy share.
The move follows an FDA inspection of a Ranbaxy facility which identified significant violations of sound manufacturing practices.
Substandard and fake drugs are rampant in India because of the highly fragmented industry.
The Supreme Court has asked the Andhra Pradesh High Court to take a decision within two days on a plea challenging merger of Sun Pharmaceutical with Ranbaxy.
The investment has lost almost 40 percent of its value in six years.
With local companies facing stress in domestic operations, valuations are down.
One of the suitors says that Ranbaxy's Indian portfolio alone is worth $2 billion, or approximately Rs 11,900 crore.
The company was indicted for violations at one of its US facilities in 2009, even after Daiichi Sankyo took over as majority shareholder in 2008.
It has exited most non-profitable geographies and is no longer chasing acquisitions. Will the new strategy pay off?
The initiative will be implemented through the Ranbaxy Community Health Care Society, a non profit organisation established by Ranbaxy, Daiichi and Ranbaxy said in a joint statement.
US drug maker Merck & Co has called off its two-year-old research alliance with India's largest drug company, Ranbaxy. Ranbaxy and Merck's wholly-owned Indian subsidiary, MSD, confirmed the development, but declined to provide further details.
The IPA complaint turns significant in the backdrop of increasing talk about foreign companies buying into Dr Reddy's, Piramal Healthcare and Aurobindo.
Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, and Wyeth have sued Daiichi Sankyo-owned Ranbaxy Laboratories in a US court for infringing the patent rights of Wyeth's drug, Rapamune.
Aurobindo pharma, cipla, orchid chemicals are the prominent takeover targets.
Ranbaxy, originally promoted by the Singh family, was acquired by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo late last year.
In a twist to the tale of drug patent infringement cases in the United States, Indian drug company Lupin has sued Ranbaxy Laboratories, which is now controlled by Japanese drug major Daiichi Sankyo, in an American court.
The reason for their silence is that the Ranbaxy deal has not hurt the interests of most sections of the voting community. Let alone farmers, even the urban voters are not bothered by the deal as it has no direct adverse impact on them.
Malvinder steps down as CMD four years ahead of schedule.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta held the former Ranbaxy promoters guilty of contempt of court and said that they had violated its earlier order by which the sale of their controlling stakes in Fortis Group to Malayasian firm IHH Healthcare was put on hold.
The USFDA has accused Ranbaxy of falsifying data and test results of medicines. A Daiichi Sankyo statement said it takes the issue very seriously. 'Both Daiichi and Ranbaxy have formed a team to solve the issue. Ranbaxy will be responding to the FDA and will continue to cooperate with the agency.' Ranbaxy shares fell more than 18 per cent to Rs 169.85 today on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while Daiichi stock dropped about 10 per cent to yen 1,680 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
India's largest drug manufacturer, Ranbaxy Laboratories, had falsified data and test results of medicines manufactured at its Himachal Pradesh facility to obtain marketing approval in the United States, says the US Food and Drug Administration.
Minority shareholders of Hyderabad-based Zenotech Laboratories, a biotech company in which Ranbaxy owns 46.8 per cent, are up in arms against Ranbaxy's new owner Daiichi Sankyo for allegedly failing to buy additional shares at the price offered by the former promoters of Ranbaxy.
Earlier in February, Daiichi Sankyo had announced it would launch an open offer for Zenotech to acquire 68.85 lakh shares or a 20 per cent stake. Daiichi had said it would pay up to Rs 78.23 crore (Rs 782.3 million), at Rs 113.62 a share, to Zenotech shareholders for the stake in the open offer, which was scheduled to begin on July 15 and close on August 3.
The government on Wednesday announced the approval of Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo's proposed acquisition of shares in domestic pharma major Ranbaxy, along with 23 other proposals for a total FDI investment of Rs 753.14 crore
WakeupWalmart.com, an anti-Wal-Mart website which belongs to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, came out with a report two days ago titled, 'Wal-Mart's vaunted $4 prescriptions supplied by disgraced Indian manufacturer.' UFCW claims to have a membership of over 1.3 million workers in the US and Canada. WakeupWalmart.com mainly campaigns for the rights of Wal-Mart employees and consumer interests.
Sources say the firm had to act to calm Japanese investors, restive at the flow of bad news.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is looking into the possibility of price manipulation in the shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories. Sources familiar with the developments said a couple of market intermediaries may find the going tough, with the market regulator asking for data on the share price movements before the announcement of Daiichi-Sankyo's acquisition of the Ranbaxy promoters' stake last week.
Daiichi-Sankyo's $5.3 billion acquisition of India's biggest drugmaker will help the Japanese company compete in the US markets with rivals such as Mylan and Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals and climb to become the world's 15th largest pharmaceutical company. Thus it is an important move on the part of an original drug research company to attach generic business portfolio," noted Ranjit Shahani, the vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India.
Ranbaxy's investment in the six-year-old joint venture for the 50 per cent stake is estimated at Rs 30.5 crore (Rs 305 million). Industry sources said the deal was unlikely to impact Ranbaxy's financials as revenues and investment in the joint venture was not significant. Sources said revenues from NPI were only $25 million in 2007 through the sale of four generic products.
The Daiichi Sankyo-Ranbaxy deal is facing a new hurdle, following an objection from the stock exchanges over completing the stake sale transaction through the block deal window, forcing the Ranbaxy promoter Malvinder Singh and his family to pay about Rs 1,000 crore from the sale as tax to complete the transaction.
The group's testing lab chain SRL Ranbaxy has been renamed as Religare Super Laboratories. RanAir, its charter aviation company will be known as Religare Voyages. About 15 group companies, including joint ventures like Religare Macquarie Private Wealth, Religare Aegon and Vistaar Religare have come under the umbrella brand Religare.
"It will be the team I choose to have with the approval of the board. It is really our call on how to run the business. Certainly, the growth will be higher and so will be the size and scale of the investments. You will see a lot more aggression in terms of leveraging opportunities for the next few years," says Ranbaxy CEO Malvinder Mohan Singh.
Firm reaches out-of-court agreement on 5 of 19 patent challenges in the US.
The shareholders want Daiichi to offer the same price (Rs 160) that was offered by Ranbaxy while acquiring a 45 per cent stake in Zenotech a year ago. Daiichi has to make an open offer as it has indirectly become the major shareholder of Zenotech by virtue of the Ranbaxy acquisition.
'It might take 10 years before medicines of decent quality and price reach right down to the last village of India. Ranbaxy, with its India focus, intends to get there in five years.'
The company also said it would suffer a one-time loss of $3.8 billion on consolidated basis for its investments in Ranbaxy Laboratories. Daiichi Sankyo has based its estimates for the one-time write-down of goodwill on its investment in Ranbaxy to fully reflect the impact of the current turmoil in global equities, the company said.
Over the past few months, the two firms had been battling in courts over the price of the open offer. SAT's order regarding the status quo of the public offer came after Zenotech's two shareholders -- Jayaram Chigurupati and Narayan -- moved the tribunal against the Securities and Exchange Board of India's nod to Daiichi for the offer at Rs 113 a share.
ICICI Securities, Daiichi Sankyo's offer manager, has indicated that there will be a delay in payment for Ranbaxy's accepted shares as the acquisition of the country's largest drug maker is yet to clear all regulatory and procedural hurdles. Daiichi has agreed to accept Ranbaxy shares from the open market as well as its promoters for Rs 737 a share. The company's scrip closed at Rs 347.2 at the Bombay Stock Exchange on September 22.
US giant expected to bid for 65% non-promoter stake.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances