Goldshield to split after buy-out talks fail

UK generic drug firm Goldshield plans to split into two separate divisions after management buy-out talks ended. The Thornton Heath-based company said it would reorganize into two units - pharmaceutical and wellbeing - which could lead to a possible demerger.

Current chief executive, Ajit Patel, will head the Wellbeing home care business while finance director Rakesh Patel, no relation, will take control of the firm's product-intensive drug operations. Goldshield is one of the companies under criminal investigation over allegations that they defrauded the UK's National Health Service out of millions of pounds, by price-fixing in the supply of the anticoagulant warfarin, the anti-ulcerant ranitidine and certain antibiotics (Marketletters April 10, 2006).