subject: Pfizer Inc looses battle for German generic-drug maker [print this page] Generic drug manufacturers are taking over brand name drugs faster than you can imagine.And actually it is great for people because they are able to buy cheap and quality equivalents of brand name drugs.On the other hand huge brand name manufacturers are suffering from this situation.
So to improve their market, Pfizer Inc was set to present a nearly $4 billion offer for German generic-drug maker Ratiopharm GmbH, competing against rival bids from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Actavis.
Pfizer was expected to "be competitive" with a rival offer from Iceland's Actavis.
But on March 18 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to buy Ratiopharm GmbH for 3.63 billion euros ($5 billion), ending a nine-month battle for Germany's second- biggest maker of generic medicines.
The acquisition is Teva's biggest since buyingBarr Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $7.4 billion in 2008. Ratiopharm gives the Israeli drugmaker a top spot in the $8.6 billion German market for copied drugs, the world's second-largest after the U.S.
The takeover catapults Teva into the top three generic-drug makers in Germany, alongside Novartis AG's Hexal unit andStada Arzneimittel AG. The deal also gives it 3 of the top 10 generic products by volume in the German retail drug market and 5 of the top 10 generic drugs sold to hospitals, according to data from IMS Health.Teva last year bought stakes in OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., gaining rights to an experimental cancer therapy, and Taisho Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., increasing its access to the Japanese generic-drug market.
