Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories bidding for Betapharm

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories bidding for Betapharm

Media group Business Standard has reported that the Indian medicine giants Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. have placed a bid for the acquisition of the German generic drug maker Betapharm. The bid is said to be of about 25 billion rupees, which comes close to $564 million.

In addition, two other players are also said to be in the hunt to acquire Betapharm. This includes other Indian medical industry giants Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. However, the company representatives from none of these involved parties have issued any kind of statement on the rumors floating in the market.

Earlier reports in the market indicated that the British private equity firm 3i was talking with Israel’s Teva for a possible sale of Betapharm, which is currently the Germany’s fourth-largest generic drug maker. 3i had earlier acquired this company in March 2004 for about 300 million euros.

Indian drug makers have recently started looking at acquisition companies outside India ever since a new law that disallowed copying of drugs under patent elsewhere came into effect in January 2005.