Viatris, a US-based drugmaker, is offering its active pharmaceutical ingredients and women's health care businesses in India for a combined $1.2 billion, as part of a $3.6 billion global divestiture drive to pare debt.
The API business will be sold to IQuest Enterprises, the investment firm in Secunderabad, while the women's health care business is going to Spanish firm Insud Pharma.
Viatris said its API business sale includes three manufacturing sites and a research and development laboratory in Hyderabad, three manufacturing sites in Visakhapatnam, and third-party API sales. The American drugmaker will retain some select R&D capabilities in API. The transaction with IQuest Enterprises is expected to close in Q1 2024.
Iquest is sponsored by the former promoter of Matrix Labs, Nimmagadda Prasad. In 2006, Prasad sold his shares in Matrix Labs to Mylan. Thus, this deal in a way marks homecoming for Prasad in a way. In 2019, Mylan was merged with Pfizer's Upjohn division to form Viatris.
Iquest Enterprises has a broad portfolio of investments in the pharmaceutical and health care industries, including investments in CARE Hospitals and Celon Laboratories.
On the other hand, Insud Pharma has acquired the women's health care business, which includes two manufacturing plants in Gujarat, Sarigam and Ahmedabad. The women's health care business mainly revolves around oral and injectable contraceptives. This transaction is likely to close by Q1 2024.
In August, Viatris chief financial officer Sanjeev Narula said the company would continue to prioritise deleveraging the balance sheet with $6.1 billion of debt pay-down since the beginning of 2021.
s completed biosimilars divestiture, the company expects to realise gross proceeds representing a multiple above 12x on 2022 calculated adjusted EBITda for its portfolio of divested assets. Biocon Biologics sold biosimilars to Biocon Biologics, a global biotechnology company.
Under the terms of the agreements, the company's gross earnings from all divestitures are up to $6.94 billion, or about $5.2 billion in estimated aggregate net proceeds, including taxes and other expenses, it said.
Viatris chose to retain the rights for Viagra, Dymista, and select OTC products in certain markets, bringing a projected retain value of approximately $1.6 billion.
In another transaction, Viatris signed a contract to divest its rights to women's healthcare products Duphaston and Femoston to Theramex, a top global specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to women's health. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2023.