The Hyderabad-based Jupiter Bioscience Ltd, specializing in the synthesis of peptides, is expected to finalise the acquisition of SynphaBase AG, Swiss pharmaceutical company, by the end of February 2011, it is learnt.



It is the second acquisition by Jupiter Biosciences in Switzerland. The first one was the acquisition of a peptide manufacturing facility in 2008. SynphaBase is a company with 25 employees and focus on organic and chiral chemistry. It has annual turnover of $7 million. Jupiter has already raised funds for the acquisition by issuing Global Depository Receipts (GDRs).



Venkat R Kalavakolanu, chairman and managing director, Jupiter Bioscience, said, “Basically international companies are more comfortable in dealing with front-end facilities. So we are planning to project to the customers that the development of some critical steps will be done in Switzerland and chiral manufacturing will be done in India”. Adding he said that it can provide the customers cost advantage and it is the main idea behind the acquisition.



The company’s decision to acquire the Switzerland-based company is in the wake of several patented Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) are going out of patent in the next few years. Kalavakolanu, said, “Several patented APIs are going out of patent in the near future and we want to tap that business”.



Jupiter, with a turnover of Rs.180 crore in the last financial year, is targeting to achieve Rs.280 crore in the current financial year. Domestic market contributes 70 per cent of the company’s revenue, while rest of the 30 per cent is from the international market. Europe contributes 50 per cent of the export revenue. The contribution of the peptide segment is 45 per cent.



The company, which is a leading player in the global peptide industry, is in discussions with two leading multinational drug discovery companies for the supply of peptides and the deal is expected to conclude in another few months. The company, which has one peptide drug in the domestic market, is planning to launch two more products in another two months. The company, with five manufacturing facilities presently, is also looking for acquisition of a couple of manufacturing facilities in India.