India’s Cipla Acquires First US Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility

Global pharmaceutical company Cipla, has acquired two generic pharmaceutical manufacturing companies based in the US. “This acquisition is the second landmark acquisition in Cipla’s 80 year history – the first was Cipla Medpro, South Africa,” said a statement released by the company.

The Mumbai-based Cipla paid $550 million for InvaGen Pharmaceuticals, which has a generics manufacturing facility in Long Island, New York. InvaGen has 32 generic drugs on the market, with 30 more in development.

The deal also included Exelan Pharmaceuticals, a Lawrenceville, Georgia-based facility that markets InvaGen’s drugs toward the institutional and government sectors. Both plants have a combined approximate workforce of 500 employees.

The acquisition was made in an effort to increase Cipla’s presence in the lucrative US market. Currently, only 10 percent of the company’s annual revenues come from the US.

“InvaGen’s balanced portfolio, robust manufacturing base and strong R&D capabilities will act as lever to expand Cipla’s reach in the US market,” said Umang Vohra, CEO of Cipla. The company reported that revenues from the two US manufacturing facilities totaled $230 million in 2015.

Cipla used a UK-based subsidiary to complete the acquisition of the two sites. Both Cipla and its recently-acquired InvaGen plant have received their fair share of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) attention. The agency issued a Form 483 to the New York plant just months before the Indian drugmaker announced their deal with InvaGen.

In the summer of 2015, the FDA also issued a Form 483 to a Cipla-owned facility in Indore. The FDA cited observations relating to a voluntary US recall of the company’s asthma drug, levalbuterol, after a degradant was identified in the product.