The Board of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy), India's rapidly growing global generic pharmaceutical company, has approved the establishment of a subsidiary operation in Spain as the latest step in its European expansion strategy. The move follows Ranbaxy's entry into France through its acquisition of RPG (Aventis) SA on January 5, 2004.

With a prescription medicine market, valued at around Euros 7 billion (2002), and growing at 9 per cent, Spain ranks ninth in the world market for prescription pharmaceuticals and fifth in the EU. The current generic market is relatively small at 4 per cent of the total pharmaceutical market but it is growing at 25 per cent per annum.

Ranbaxy plans to grow its business organically in Spain, launching products from its existing wide range of quality generic medicines. The company will set up its wholly owned subsidiary, Laboratorios Ranbaxy SL, based in Barcelona, Spain.

Commenting on the occasion, Dr Brian Tempest, joint managing director and CEO designate, Ranbaxy, said, "This move is a key element in our strategy of expansion in Europe. It means that Ranbaxy has a presence on the ground in five of the top pharmaceutical markets in Europe- UK, Germany, France, Spain and Poland. Now is a good time for us to move into Spain, as the generics market is predicted to grow significantly in the next few years in line with the government's policy to bring down the cost of medicines. We are ideally positioned to meet the needs of healthcare professionals and patients in Spain for medicines of quality and value across a wide range of disease."