Sun Pharma to acquire Ranbaxy in a $4 billion deal.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said it will buy Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. in a $3.2 billion all-share deal, creating the world's fifth-largest generic drug maker from two firms struggling with quality issues in the lucrative United States market.

Ranbaxy, India's biggest drugmaker by sales and 63.4% owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., is banned from exporting drug ingredients to the US. Sun Pharmaceutical's Karkhadi plant is also barred from shipping products by the US Food and Drug Administration.

India's pharmaceutical industry, which supplies more than 20% of the world's generic drugs, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, suffers from a lack of oversight including a severe shortage of regulatory inspectors.


BS