The Hindu Business Line : Galpha Labs buys anti-fungal brand Grisonorm from Noble Drugs

IT is not just the big daddies of the pharma segment that nurture acquisition plans. The estimated Rs 60-crore Galpha Laboratories Ltd has acquired a generic anti-fungal brand, Grisonorm, from Nashik-based Noble Drugs.

Galpha had a limited presence in the anti-fungal segment with the same molecule, Griseofulvin. The acquisition is to strengthen its position, said Mr N.S. Shenoy, Vice-President (Commercial).

Unwilling to divulge the consideration at which the brand was bought, he said that the product had a sales of about Rs 50 lakh.

The anti-fungal market in the country is estimated at Rs 385 crore and Griseofulvin accounts for about Rs 10 crore, he said.

Grisonorm, the brand name of the acquired drug, will be retained but Galpha would manufacture the drug. Competition in this segment includes multinational drug company Glaxosmithkline, he said. Galpha expects the revenue to come through institutional sales and has already bagged an estimated Rs 1-crore order from the Defence sector, he added.

More acquisition is on the cards, with Galpha looking at brands and companies, he said. The company is looking for brands around the size of Rs 10 crore, besides companies as big as themselves, he said.

To fund its acquisition plans, the company is planning an estimated Rs 50 crore initial public offering, later this year. The company has manufacturing facilities at Ankleshwar (Gujarat) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and expects to end March 2006 with sales of about Rs 100 crore.

Having got regulatory approvals recently, Galpha has started marketing two injections in the country, a cephalosporin-extention and a pain-management combination injection, he said.

Galpha started as a pharmaceutical marketing company in 1986 and today has close to a 600-strong field force promoting about 100 products across the country. With its presence in nutritional, antibiotic, pain and gastro-intestinal segments, the company is also looking at lifestyle diseases, he said.

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