GeneMedix to grow drugs portfolio after €22m Indian deal

BRITISH pharmaceutical company GeneMedix, which has a manufacturing base in Tullamore, Co Offaly, has signed a €22 million deal with an Indian firm which is expected to see its portfolio of products grow.

Reliance Life Sciences is due to conclude a deal to buy a 74% stake in Genemedix this week according to In-PharmaTechnologist.com.

The acquisition deal also involves a five-year warrant option for Reliance Life Sciences for a further 1,404 million shares at 1.25p/share to enable infusion of an extra £17.5m, which would take the shareholding of Reliance Life Sciences in GeneMedix to 86%. This is the first overseas purchase of a listed biopharmaceutical firm by an Indian operation.

The two firms will now run clinical trials, manufacture and commercialise the ‘bio-similar drugs’ that are under development in their joint portfolios.

Genemedix is currently developing ‘biosimilar’ versions of drugs such as the anaemia treatment Erythropoietin (EPO) as well as drugs for the treatment of hepatitis B and C. Both firms are hoping to launch their drugs onto the European, and eventually the US markets, as soon as possible.

RLS is in the process of building a large-scale manufacturing facility in Mumbai that will eventually be able to make a number of its own biopharmaceuticals as well as some of GeneMedix’s drugs.

Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani: “We envisage GeneMedix as an important enabler of our global life sciences business aspirations, with significant potential for contribution in the biopharmaceutical space.”

The Tullamore wing of Genemedix was opened in 2002 and employs 25 people.