Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has sewn up its deal for Japan's Taiyo Pharmaceutical. The Israeli generics giant is paying $460 million for a 57 percent interest, with plans to extend its bid to the remaining minority shareholders in a deal valuing Taiyo at $1.3 billion. It's just the latest $1 billion-plus deal for Teva, which agreed to buy Cephalon earlier this month.
The Taiyo buy will boost Teva's presence in Japan, a generics market the company is aiming to dominate. With Taiyo's portfolio of 550 drugs--plus $530 million in 2010 sales--Teva will be able to hit its target of $1 billion in Japanese sales ahead of its 2015 goal. "This acquisition will enable Teva to deliver on our strategic objective of becoming a leading player in the fast-growing Japanese generics market," CEO Shlomo Yanai said in a statement.
As the FT notes, Japan's generics market is heating up because of the government's push to increase utilization of copycat drugs. Now, generics only represent 23 percent of the drug market, and the government wants to push that up to 30 percent.
Don't expect this deal to be Teva's last, either. Yanai said at a press briefing in Tokyo that his company is always looking for acquisitions, and that won't stop. "We are scrutinizing constantly the opportunities and in due time we will move for further acquisitions when we find them a ... strategic fit," Yanai said (as quoted by Reuters).
- get Teva's release
- read the FT piece
- get more from Reuters
- see the Bloomberg story