Meiji Seika Pharma Co Ltd, a business subsidiary of Meiji Holdings Co Ltd of Japan, has set to acquire Medreich Ltd, India for a total consideration of Rs.1720 crore ($290 million). Meiji Holdings and its affiliates have entered into a share purchase agreement with the promoters of Medreich which is indirectly own through Med Holdings (UK) Ltd, Nokha Holdings Pvt Ltd and V-Sciences Investments Pte Ltd owned by Tamasek Holdings, Singapore. Thus, Medreich will become a subsidiary of Meiji Seika Pharma and will retain its name.

Medreich has six manufacturing facilities built to comply with standards stipulated by International Regulatory bodies. The facility has been validated through successful inspections by the UK MHRA, AUSTRALIA TGA, PICS, MCC SOUTH AFRICA, CANADA HEALTH resulting in cGMP compliance / certification / accreditations by these regulatory bodies.

Medreich is globally engaged in the contract manufacturing and development activities as well as the manufacturing and sale of generic drugs focusing on Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa. Global major pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Adcock Ingram, Pfizer, Sanofi, Novartis and Mylan are the major customers of Medreich. It is involved in the manufacturing and marketing of range of pharmaceutical producs in various dosage forms catering to diverse therapeutic categories including anti-infectives, multivitamins, analgesics and antihistamines.

In order to achieve sustained growth of pharmaceuticals business, Meiji Seika is striving to further grow its generic drugs business and actively expand its international business with a focus on Asia and other emerging markets.

According to Meji's spokesperson,  generic drugs market is rapidly expanding due to the government policy of reducing medical expenditures. In Asia and other emerging countries, the demand for affordable pharmaceutical products is expected to remain strong. Therefore, there are needs to expand cost-competitive production capacity to meet such increase in demand. Furthermore, as outsourcing for cost reduction is increasing in the pharma industry, sustainable growth of the contract manufacturing business is expected globally.