Israel's generics king strikes again
Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's #1 generic drug maker, announced the purchase of a big competitor, US-based Barr Pharmaceuticals. The deal is for $7.5 billion in cash and stock.
Barr allows Teva to expand in the growing Eastern European market and also is a maker of contraceptives. The deal will also boost Teva to 24% market share in generics in the US. Barr had bought Croatian drugmaker Pliva in 2006 for $2.5 billion.
The deal will be the second-largest generics deal, following Teva;s purchase of Ivax in 2006. It's another step in the steady consolidation of what is mostly a commodity business, but one that has growing returns as national health plans and insurers see more and more of the drugs they need to treat common chronic illnesses coming off patent. In generics, global presence and scale of operations are big factors, as the margin per prescription is low.
Other recent big generics deals include US-based Mylan bought Germany-based Merck KGaA's generics unit in 2007 for $6.9 billion. Japan's Daichi Snakyo recently bought India's Ranbaxy Laboratories for $4.6 billion. Sanofi-Aventis of is now trying to buy Czech-based Zentiva.
8:07:54 PM 
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