Lupin scouts for acquisitions in U.S.

New Delhi: Looking to bolster its overseas presence, drug major Lupin is scouting for acquisition opportunities in the US market, especially in inhalers and injectables segments.

“We continue to evaluate opportunities and going forward acquisitions in the U.S. would have to satisfy our multiple aspirations of creating a meaningful speciality business, bolstering our existing brands business and acquiring technological capabilities that we would like to work on,” Lupin Ltd CFO S Ramesh told PTI.

The company continues to be on the lookout for meaningful targets, be it brands or technology companies, in inhalation, complex injectables and skin diseases segments, he added.

Terming the U.S. as a high growth market for the company, the Mumbai-based firm said it aims to grow at around 25 per cent in the world’s largest drug market.

“For Lupin, the US is a high growth market and the major contributor to the company’s overall revenues and profitability... We don’t give guidance but if the past is prescriptive of the future we would aim to maintain our current growth momentum for the U.S. market - between 20-25 per cent,” Ramesh said.

The company remains the 5th largest and fastest growing top five generic players in the U.S. for the third year now, he added.

As per IMS Health data, Lupin currently has close to 5.4 per cent market share of the overall U.S. generics market.

The U.S. formulation sales contributed 44 per cent to the company’s overall consolidated revenue for FY14.

U.S. revenues grew by 16 per cent to $803 million during FY14 out of which the generic business contributed $723 million.

As of June 30, 2014, the company’s cumulative abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) stood at 200 with the company having received 103 approvals.

“Currently 97 ANDA’s are pending for approval and launch; addressing an opportunity of over $80 billion... 31 filings out of which are first-to-file (FTF) opportunities,” Ramesh said.

Shares of Lupin were trading 1.52 per cent down at Rs 1,364 apiece on the BSE.
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