Granules India, a fast growing pharmaceutical manufacturer, has now singed the definite agreement for the acquisition of Auctus Pharma, a leading API manufacturer. The acquisition amount is around Rs. 1.20 crore and the process is expected to be completed in the next three to six months.
Auctus has two manufacturing facilities, an API facility in the Pharmacity in Vishakhapatnam and an Intermediate facility in Hyderabad. The API facility has approvals from leading regulatory agencies including the US FDA, EDQM, Health Canada, KFDA and WHO-GMP.
Auctus’ product portfolio includes twelve APIs as well as key intermediates of those APIs. The portfolio includes APIs in several therapeutic categories such as anti-histaminic, anti-hypertensive, anti-thrombotic and anti-convulsant as well as other therapeutic categories. Auctus currently sells its APIs and intermediates to customers in fifty countries. The team and assets from the acquisition will initially operate as a separate division with Granules.
Granules also announced the opening of a 10,000 sq. foot R&D facility in Hyderabad. The new R&D will focus on full scale generic API development and will supplement the Company’s existing R&D facility in Pune which currently focuses on sustainable technology development.
“The acquisition of Auctus fits into our strategy of being a fully integrated manufacturer while diversifying our product portfolio by adding high-value products with significant market demand. Auctus provides Granules with a meaningful API platform with a US FDA approved site to strengthen our Finished Dosage division. Granules will offer tremendous value to customers since we can provide supply security all the way from key intermediates to finished dosages for these products. We will be a market leader by implementing our operational excellence philosophy while leveraging Auctus’ regulatory approvals. In order to accelerate growth with a sustainable development engine, we have established a new R&D facility to enable Finished Dosage filings for our new APIs,” said Krishna Prasad, managing director of Granules India.
“The acquisition is one part of our three-prong growth strategy. We remain committed to building on our position as a global leader for our existing products which include paracetamol, metformin, ibuprofen and guaifenesin. We will continue to strengthen our lead over others by focusing on continuous improvements and capacity enhancements in existing and new products. In addition, our team is eagerly awaiting the commercialization of our third growth driver, Granules OmniChem, a collaboration with Ajinomoto OmniChem, a premier CRAMs manufacturer,” said Harsha Chigurupati, executive director of Granules India.
Granules is now for its Finished Dosages (FDs), Pharmaceutical Formulation Intermediates (PFIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (supplied to customers in the regulated and semi-regulated markets. Its global presence extends to over 300 customers in 60 countries through offices in India, US, UK, China and Colombia. The company has the largest PFI facility in the world with an industry leading six ton batch size. Further, the company has its own abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and dossiers which enable customers to quickly enter a market instead of filing their own applications.