Cipla buys two Indian manufacturing facilities from partner Okasa

India's Cipla, which has recently been taking steps to expand its capacity outside of its home country, is now boosting its domestic operations. The drugmaker says it is buying two facilities from one of its contractors.

Cipla reported to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday that it would spend a total of about Rs. 101 crore ($16.7 million) to buy the plants from Okasa Private and Okasa Pharma. The deal is being handled through Cipla's Medispray Laboratories subsidiary. It said much of the production from the operations is already dedicated to Cipla products and that it expects the acquisitions to save it money.

The company will pay Rs. 290 million ($4.8 million) for a facility in Goa owned by Okasa Private and Rs. 719.3 million ($11.9 million) for a unit in Satara owned by Okasa Pharma. No other details about the plants were provided, but according to Okasa's website, it has plants that make about every kind of formulation and one dedicated entirely to aerosols.

Cipla said in July that it would spend $21 million for a 51% stake in a pharma manufacturing and distribution operation in Yemen. The company declined at the time to identify the company or seller, but Cipla spokesperson Jaisingh Krishnan said the drugmaker had one manufacturing facility which was expected to be commissioned shortly that would manufacture tablets and capsules.

It also announced in July that it would invest £100 million ($172 million) in the U.K. to boost sales of its respiratory, oncology and antiretroviral drugs there. Earlier it said it would spend $14 million to buy a 60% stake in a company in Sri Lanka that would distribute its products there.

- here's the BSE filing