Suven Pharma may buy Casper Pharma with FDA-ready plant

Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SPL), the Hyderabad headquartered drug firm into contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) and discovery research, has on 8 February decided to evaluate the acquisition opportunity of Casper Pharma Pvt Ltd (CPPL).

The board of directors of SPL gave in-principal approval for evaluating the acquisition of CPPL, which has built an advanced pharmaceutical formulations facility at the special economic zone of the Hyderabad Airport and awaiting inspection of the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

“We have signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Casper Pharma and appointed various agencies to take up legal, financial, and tax due diligence, which is expected to be completed over the next couple of weeks,” the SPL chairman and managing director Venkateswarlu Jasti told Moneycontrol.

Jasti said the advanced formulations manufacturing facility of CPPL is awaiting the inspection and approval of the USFDA and the acquisition if decided and approved, could save a significant time of 3-4 years and efforts for SPL to build a world-class formulations facility.

“The facility of CPPL has a capacity to produce 1.2 billion tablets/ capsules a year with an advanced manufacturing facility located over 13 acres of land at the GMR Aviation SEZ in Hyderabad and is ready for revenue generation in the 6-9 months with several long-term contracts on hand,” said Jasti.

For the quarter ended December 2021, SPL reported a growth of 63.08% in total income at Rs 456.27 crore, up from Rs 279.77 crore a year ago, and an increase of 40.93% in post-tax profit at Rs 159.85 crore (Rs 113.42 crore). Jasti attributed the growth to periodic small-volume, high-value, specialised, and customer-specific product mix, which was not uniformly spread across quarters.

The SPL stock on Tuesday closed at Rs 569.05, gaining 1.89% or Rs 10.55 over the previous close, on BSE.