Aurobindo Pharma hives off biosimilar business to subsidiary

Aurobindo Pharma on Wednesday said that it will hive off its biosimilars business to its one-month old wholy-owned subsidiary ‘CuraTeQ Biologics Private Limited’ for a cash consideration of ₹361.46 crore.
Biosimilars are biological medical products which are similar to existing medicines.

The decision was taken at the company’s board meeting on Wednesday, where it also finalised its earnings for the January-March quarter.

The Hyderabad-based drugmaker will transfer its biosimilars business, including related research and development and manufacturing facilities to its wholly-owned subsidiary.

The slump sale is aimed at increasing the focus towards biological R&D and its commercialization, as well as to augment fund raising and strategic tie-ups in future through joint ventures, among others, Aurobindo Pharma said in an exchange filing.

The company also aims to improve operational efficiency of its business and is looking for a potential listing opportunity for the wholly-owned subsidiary in future.

Aurobindo Pharma has been ramping ups its biosimilar operations for the last few years, a segment where an increasing number of drugmakers are entering for promise of strong returns.

The biosimilar business has a high gestation period and involves high risk, but also provides promise high returns as some of the biggest selling drugs globally are biologics.

In India, the biologics space is led by Biocon Ltd, which through its partnership with Mylan, has already commercialised the biosimilars trastuzumab, pegfilgrastim, among others.

Other players in the space include Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Zydus Cadila and Lupin. – Livemint