When Piramal Healthcare sold its domestic medicines business to Abbott in 2010, it also indicated a change in its involvement with the pharmaceuticals business.

A shift from being a maker of branded generic-versions of medicines to making exclusive patent-protected products, said the Chairman, Mr Ajay Piramal.

And Piramal Healthcare's latest acquisition, of Bayer Pharma's portfolio of molecular-imaging tracers, is a step in that direction, he told mediapersons after the deal was announced on Monday.

Piramal Healthcare has signed an agreement with Bayer to acquire the worldwide rights of the latter's molecular imaging research and development portfolio. The company did not give the deal amount.

The transaction, executed through its newly created subsidiary Piramal Imaging SA, included the rights to florbetaben that helps detect a certain kind of plaque deposit in the brain, indicating probable Alzheimer's disease in patients.

Florbetaben is in the final stages of clinical trials, after which it goes in for regulatory approval.

The company expects to file for regulatory approval in the US in the third quarter of year, he added. About 25 million people are estimated to suffer from Alzheimer's in 2023 and this is expected to go up to 100 million in 2050, Mr Piramal said. The cost of treating the illness is about $250 billion.

The Bayer portfolio acquisition also brings in other similar tracers or markers, in cancer, heart and nervous-system related research. But this research is in its early stages, he added.

A team of about 20 Bayer scientists working on these products will also move to the Piramal company, he said.

>jyothi@thehindu.co.in

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