This deal is the sixth acquisition in the last 2 years for Piramal. Piramal has invested about $270MM in acquisitions in that time period. Piramal had in 2010 sold its domestic formulations business to Abbott Laboratories Inc. for $3.72bn.
This acquisition appears to be a strategic fit for Piramal in the critical care space and allows the company to leverage its existing relationships and distribution channels.
Piramal is in the inhaled anesthetics business in 100-plus countries and this acquisition of the Janssen injectables is a good strategic fit.
Piramal is currently the third-largest player in the inhalation anesthesia market globally. Their market share has grown from 3% in 2009 to around 12% this year.
The acquisition covers the injectable versions of Janssen's Sublimaze (fentanyl citrate), Sufenta (sufentanil citrate), Rapifen (alfentanil hydrochloride), Dipidolor (piritramide), and Hypnomidate (etomidate).
The transaction includes the brand trademarks, related intellectual property associated with the products and know-how to make both finished product and API.
Janssen will continue to supply finished dosage forms for up to three years and the APIs for up to five years until a technology transfer is completed. Janssen will also continue to sell the products on behalf of Piramal until the marketing authorizations are transferred.
The acquired products, which are currently marketed in over 50 countries, notched net sales of about $45m for the last 12 months.
The deal valuation is said to represent about 10 times trailing EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
Earlier this year Piramal Critical Care and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced the co-promotion of two of Cumberland’s branded hospital products, Caldolor (ibuprofen) and Vaprisol (conivaptan hydrochloride) in the US.
As for the Janssen unit it appears that they have made a strategic move to divest certain opioids within their portfolio including these Anesthetics. Recently they have also divested their Noramco business and NUCYNTA (tapentadol) businesses in the US and Canada.