Dr. Reddy's Buying Eight Drugs From Teva for U.S. Market

By Suryatapa Bhattacharya 

NEW DELHI -- India's Dr. Reddy's Laboratories said it has agreed to buy eight drugs from Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for $350 million, as the Indian drugmaker seeks to gain a foothold in the U.S. market by selling more sophisticated treatments.

"The transaction will add strength to our product portfolio, help us be more relevant in our U.S. market and create new opportunities for growth, " G.V. Prasad, chief executive of Dr. Reddy's said in a statement.

The medicines are "complex generic products," Dr. Reddy's said on Saturday in a regulatory filing. One of the treatments has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval already, according to Calving Printer, a spokesman for Dr. Reddy's. The others are still waiting.

Mr. Printer declined to offer details on the drugs citing "mutual privileges and confidentialities" between buyer and seller.

Teva is selling the drugs to Dr. Reddy's as part of its planned $4.2 billion acquisition of Allergan PLC's generics business.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has yet to approve the purchase of the drugs,, which India's second-largest drugmaker by sales said is contingent on the completion of the Israeli company's deal with Allergan.

The U.S. is a key market for Indian generic drugmakers.

Indian companies are spending at an unprecedented rate to develop new drugs that will give them a leg up from the highly competitive and increasingly commoditized generics market. Dr. Reddy's spent $253 million in 2015 on research and development, up 33% from a year earlier.

Write to Suryatapa Bhattacharya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2016 13:43 ET (17:43 GMT)

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