Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has closed the sale of its antibiotic manufacturing facility and related assets in Bristol, Tennessee to Neopharma Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the UAE’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in Abu Dhabi.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Hyderabad-based company sold all the issued and outstanding membership interests in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Tennessee, LLC and certain related assets.
“This sale is in line with our stated priority to streamline and optimise our global cost structures and help us focus on other business priorities to drive growth," Erez Israeli, Chief Operating Officer, Dr Reddy’s, said in a release issued here on Monday.
The agreement may provide continued employment opportunities for many of the experienced employees at the site, he added.
Suresh Nandiraju, Chief Operating Officer of Neopharma Inc., said, “This acquisition is synergetic and will strengthen our product portfolio for driving long-term, sustainable growth by leveraging our global presence.”
The plant and associated facilities focus on manufacturing or packaging amoxicillin-based products, which include a semi-synthetic penicillin. The 390,000-square-foot facility is dedicated to manufacturing/packaging of secondary oral-solid dose penicillin, and it includes processing, packaging, development, printing, and warehouse spaces. A separate 24,000-square-foot plastics-processing facility in Bristol is also included in the transaction.
The company also announced the termination of the licence granted to Armis Biopharma, Inc. (formerly known as CHD Bioscience, Inc.) for its investigational antibacterial product, DFA-02, for prophylaxis of surgical site infections.
As a result of the termination, Dr Reddy's has regained worldwide rights to DFA-02, and is currently evaluating its options to take the programme forward.
The pharma major also launched Imatinib Mesylate tablets, a therapeutic equivalent generic version of Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) tablets in the US market. These tablets are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).
According to IMS Health, the Gleevec brand and its generic version had US sales of approximately $868 million MAT for the most recent 12 months ended in July 2018. Gleevec is a trademark of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.