NPIL making business moves
late, designed to enhance its position on the world stage.
First of all, the company has decided to rebranding itself, with Nicholas Piramal India becoming Piramal Healthcare; Wellspring changing to Piramal Diagnostic Services; the firm's contract manufacturing business will be renamed as Pharma Solutions; while its research business, NPIL Research & Development, will become Piramal Life Sciences. Within its contract manufacturing division, the company indicated that it is stepping up its resolve to capture new business opportunities in the US and in Europe, namely acquisitions, in a bid to expand the capabilities and customer base of the segment. For now, the firm is primarily focusing on the US, having earmarked $50m (€38m) to spend on its formulations services business over the next three years, part of which will be used to more firmly cement itself the lucrative US market. Piramal Healthcare's rebranded Pharma Solutions business currently relies on its facilities in Canada, India and in the UK to meet the US market demand, however, the company is finally planning to tackle the US market from within its own borders and is on the hunt for the a suitable US business to purchase. "The company is very serious about establishing itself in the US," a spokesperson from the firm told Outsourcing-Pharma.com in an earlier interview. "The objective is to have a more technology driven asset in the US." "Our strategy is to buy a more "niche" capability in the US, which would be more focused on early phase production." The firm said it is planning to spend between $20m and $200m depending on the nature of the opportunity. Piramal Healthcare already spent a similar amount over the last three years across its early phase (development) and late phase (manufacturing) formulation services in India and in the UK, including the acquisition of Avecia's Pharma custom synthesis business in December 2005 and of Pfizer's manufacturing facility in Morpeth, UK in June 2006. Meanwhile, following the separation of its research and development unit from the main body of the company, Piramal Healthcare has revealed it is on the hunt for an investor, ideally an international pharma firm with a significant interest in drug discovery, to take on a 10 per cent (or greater) stake in the segment. The newly-named Piramal Life Sciences has recently been valued at $500m and specialises in four of the industry's hot areas of research, cancer, diabetes, inflammation and infectious diseases. The division has 14 compounds in its research pipeline and boasts contracts with drug giants such as Merck & Co and Eli Lilly and is due to get listed on "leading stock exchanges" in June, the firm said. The idea behind the search for funding is to mitigate the risks and costs involve in the choppy waters of new drug development.
