Indian drugmaker Sun Pharma to buy Daiichi Sankyo's stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories

Sun Pharma will acquire fellow Indian generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories, including Daichii Sankyo's majority stake in the latter for $3.2 billion. The deal makes Sun Pharma the largest drugmaker in India and the fifth biggest in the world. Sun Pharma will acquire 100 percent of Ranbaxy and $800 million in debt, as well as the responsibility of correcting Ranbaxy's operations and ending restrictions on its U.S. sales. "Our focus will be to address the issue of achieving compliance," said Sun Pharma Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi. Daichii Sankyo CEO Joji Nakayama said the acquisition "will help accelerate a solution to the series of problems at Ranbaxy." Ranbaxy is currently owned by the Japanese drugmaker, with a 68 percent stake, and after the merger Daichii Sankyo will own 9 percent of the merged company. The merged company will have operations in 65 countries, 47 manufacturing facilities across five continents and be significant player in the generic drug market. Ranbaxy has had to face issues with U.S. regulators and had to plead guilty in 2013 to charges of selling adulterated drugs. Despite the deal Daichii has agreed to pay some part of the costs arising out of possible legal action against Ranbaxy for recent problems at a plant making active pharmaceutical ingredients. Ranbaxy also faces import bans by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from any of its Indian facilities.