Ranbaxy Labs Mulls Testing Unit Spin-off (India)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's second largest drugmaker, has invested heavily in research and development (R&D). The company is considering options such as spinning off the testing and development services part of its R&D facility into a separate company and partnering a leading clinical trials firm. Ranbaxy "is in talks with a few multinational players in the drug development business to set up a joint venture company that will undertake development services of Ranbaxy as well as similar projects from outside," according to an unidentified person familiar with the situation. Another proposed option is to expand Ranbaxy's partnership model in core drug discovery research. Ranbaxy signed a multi-year agreement with global drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Plc. for drug discovery research earlier this year, and hopes to forge similar partnerships with other firms. "This will help reducing dependence on the parent company to sustain high-cost R&D and will also optimize utilization of the already created infrastructure," the person said. Ranbaxy's off-patent or generic drugs R&D pipeline has about 88 drug applications pending with the FDA, approximately 20 first-to-file generic drug candidates that can be commercialized soon, and four new drug compounds at various development stages. (Click here for more