Strengthening its base in Japan, the world's second largest pharma market, Zydus Cadila today announced the acquisition of Nippon Universal Pharmaceutical Ltd. The group has acquired 100% stake in this privately held company headquartered at Tokyo.
The Japanese generics market valued at $ 3 bn has a tremendous growth potential as it currently stands at just 5% of the total pharma market in Japan in value terms and 17% by volume. The acquisition will provide critical access to a ready manufacturing and marketing base as well as astrong distribution reach. Nippon reaches out countrywide to more than 4000 hospitals and clinics. This is expected to provide a fillip to the group's operations in a market that is highly complex and dominated by local pharma companies.
Zydus which had set up Zydus Pharma Inc in 2006 to spearhead its foray in the generics market of Japan will now be able to jumpstart its operations. Nippon provides an opportunity for the group to establish itself in Japan's rapidly evolving generics space. Zydus will be looking to leverage Nippon's strong relationship with key wholesalers which spans over three decades.
The group has identified a new product development programme that will feed at least 5 to 6 products each year to their portfolio and build a basket of 40-50 products over the next 3 to 4 years. Moreover Zydus will acquire new Marketing Authorisations (MA) from the market to cut short ondevelopment time and would also explore in-licensing agreements with other generic companies. With a sizeable number of products in its portfolio, the group will also be looking to expand the field force to cover new areas and customers in the medium term.
