Aspen Pharma negotiates purchase of assets in Brazil

The brazilian subsidiary of Aspen Pharmacare South African can accelerate the pace of business expansion from the purchase of products or companies in the country. At this point, two negotiations are in progress, preserved for confidentiality agreement and, if a business exit, the Aspen will grow more than 50% in revenues.
The lab, which made globally 36.1 billion rands (or about $ 2.5 billion for the current exchange rate) in the last financial year, to end the current fiscal year, on June 30, with a high of more than 20% in sales in Brazil, above the average growth of the market. For the recipes, the estimate is R$ 220 million.
"Still rely on hits [the talks], but we are investing in the country", says the main pharmaceutical Executive in Brazil, Alexandre France. "The market is good for multinationals". If the talks move forward, the expectation is that a potential acquisition is announced in the fourth quarter.
In recent years, the purchase of portfolio of other laboratories gave an important contribution to the growth of pharmaceutical sales in the country. In 2008, entered the Brazilian market with the purchase of Cellofarm, of similar products. Already in the following year, led 17 of Ativus herbal and, further on, bought four products of the lab Hebron.
In 2013, the Aspen, which is the largest manufacturer of generics in Africa, bought eleven Merck Sharp & Dohme products (MSD), including hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives, with reflections in the country, and at the end of 2014, closed the acquisition of the Omcilon line, already consolidated in the Brazilian market for cold sore treatment and stomatitis and relief of inflammation, which belonged to the Bristol-Myers Squibb.
According to France, the business in the fiscal year that is ending has been driven precisely by these two acquisitions, by the arrival of the phytotherapic Calman to market non-prescription drugs and for the renewal of the visual of Phillips milk of magnesia.
Purchased in 2012 of GlaxoSmithKline in Brazil, milk of magnesia won a new, more modern garb, and grew 25% in sales in that significant fiscal year. The Omcilon line, in turn, registers 60 percent of expansion, with the best sales levels ever recorded. Already the hormones that were of MSD won new strategy and will grow 20%. These products, plus the Calman, represent 40% of billing together Aspen in the country.
Despite the generic in its origin, the Aspen abandoned the segment focused to notice that in order to remain profitable, would have to invest more and more in scale. With a new strategy, started to invest in the purchase of mature brands, consolidated already, no more interest to large laboratories-in many cases because they lost the patent.
This business line has been replicated in the country. If you close one of the acquisitions that are on the negotiating table at this point, the Aspen, however, won''t have enough capacity in Brazil-the Serra (ES), is capable of producing solids (tablets) and semi-solids (creams). "The growth is not tied to the factory, so the strategy will be producing in third," said France.