Bulking up in the fast-growing Indian market has been top of mind for Big Pharma, and Bayer is no exception. The company is partnering with Zydus Cadila in a 50-50 joint venture, figuring that their combined efforts will boost sales in India. After all, the burgeoning middle class in India is expected to fuel pharma growth by 9 to 10 percent per year until 2015, the Wall Street Journal points out.
Dubbed Bayer Zydus Pharma, the joint venture will comprise Bayer's current Indian sales and marketing operations, and Cadila's women's health, diagnostic imaging, and other products, the companies said in a statement. The J.V. will market both companies' products, including Bayer's new blood thinner Xarelto and Cadila's diabetes drug Euglim, Bloomberg reports. In future, the partnership will look to commercialize new products, too.
In a statement, Bayer said the new venture will take advantage of Zydus Cadila's expertise in sales and marketing on its home turf, plus its distribution network. About 600 employees from both companies will staff Bayer Zydus. "With this step we aim to significantly accelerate our capabilities to better serve the fast-growing Indian market," Bayer CEO Joerg Reinhardt said in a statement.
The Indian deal is just Bayer's latest effort to expand in emerging markets. For instance, the company intends to launch 20 new products in China over the next five years, aiming for as much as 20 percent growth in sales there. But perhaps the best illustration of Bayer's emerging-markets focus came in November, when the company announced 4,500 job cuts in a global restructuring; that plan also includes 2,500 new jobs in targeted areas, most of them emerging markets.
- read the release from Bayer
- see the Bloomberg story
- get more from the WSJ
- check out the Business Standard story