Indian companies eyeing on acquiring the fast-growing brand BETADINE owned by Win-Medicare Ltd

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New Delhi, 8th March, 2021: Today, the Indian Pharma industry stands at Rs. 154,000 crore and amongst the leading driving force for Indian economy. While the western multinationals dominated the industry post-independence, today nine out of top ten corporations are Indian. The reason for rise of Indian corporates in last 3 decades has been attributed to the government policies and aggressive marketing strategies adopted by them. The acquisition of multinational companies and brands by Indian Pharmaceutical corporates is one amongst the various aggressive strategies.

Of late, many Indian companies are eyeing the acquisition of one of the largest and fastest growing brand Betadine®️ owned by Win-Medicare, an Umesh Modi Group Company in India. Betadine®️ sales have been growing incredibly fast, even in the tough & challenging Covid times making it the 6th highest selling pharmaceutical brand in India. Although Betadine is available in many formulations such as Ointment, Solution, Surgical Scrub, etc, but Betadine Gargle is growing at an overwhelming rate.

On a telephonic enquiry, Mr. U.K. Modi, Chairman & President of Win-Medicare Ltd., confirmed that, “I have been offered Rs. 4,500 crores by two large Indian Pharma Companies. The amount is nearly 10 times of Betadine’s annual sale turnover.”

In July 2015, the Indian Pharma company Lupin Limited entered into definitive agreements and completed its outbound acquisition of the New Jersey-based privately held generic drugs company GAVIS Pharmaceuticals LLC and Novel Laboratories Inc. (GAVIS) for USD 880 million. This is one of the largest acquisitions by an Indian pharma company in the US.

In 2006, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories acquired the fourth-largest German generic drug maker Betapharm Arzneimittel GmbH for Euro 480 million (approximately Rs 2,550 crore). In 2016, Cipla, one of the biggest pharma companies in India, acquired two US-based generic companies InvaGen and Exelan, worth USD 550 million in an all-cash transaction.

Pharmaceutical sector of Indian industry has come a long way since India gained its independence. In the post-independence era (i.e., post 1947), the Indian pharmaceutical industry was completely dominated by western multinational companies (MNCs) and drug prices in India were amongst the highest in the world. In 1970, the Indian Parliament passed the Indian Patents Act 1970 with provisions to allow only process patents for pharmaceutical molecules and new chemical entities (NCEs). The Indian Patent Act 1970 was the main reason for fast and continuous growth of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry. This growth has been led by Indian companies, many of whom have now become global giants as well.
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