Zydus Cadila buys Dutch firm Etna Biotech

Ahmedabad-based pharma major Zydus Cadila on Tuesday said it has acquired Etna Biotech, a subsidiary of the Dutch biopharma company,Crucell. This is the sixth foreign acquisition by Zydus in the last five years. The company has not divulged the details of the deal.

In an official statement issued by the Zydus Cadila CMD Pankaj Patel said: “This acquisition will help us to be in the forefront in the innovation for vaccine research and development. The deal marks company’s first acquisition in the research space and offers the group a highly evolved research platform for developing new vaccines and technology.”

Zydus, the Rs 2,300-crore company is striving for a strong foot-hold in the lucrative vaccines market. The global vaccine industry is expected to grow by 18% by 2010, which is roughly three times the growth of the global pharmaceutical industry. The company would look at scaling up its vaccine products, as the newly-acquired research oriented company will provide cost advantage, sources said.

Last month, the group received WHO accreditation for rabies vaccine. So far Zydus had only a few products in vaccines segment through collaborations which were more for marketing other vaccines. The only vaccine that the company owned is the rabies vaccine - Lyssavac N.