Cipla Ltd, India's fourth-largest drugmaker by sales, is planning to enter Latin America and Eastern Europe to tap into the growing demand for generic drugs in emerging markets, Chief Executive Subhanu Saxena said.

More than a decade after it made headlines globally for offering to make AIDS drugs for under $1 a day, Cipla gets nearly half of its sales within the country, unlike most of its domestic rivals for whom the US market makes up the bulk of revenues.

While Cipla is actively looking to expand into new emerging markets, it is also aiming to bolster its US presence so that a fifth of its sales could come from that market by 2020 compared to 8 per cent now, Saxena told Reuters in an interview at the company's headquarters in Mumbai.

The US growth plan could include acquisitions, he said.

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