Sale of Ratiopharm being considered?

German entrepreneur Adolf Merckle is reportedly considering selling his generics drug company, Ratiopharm, in order to raise capital to help support his involvement in a building materials group now under pressure from the banks. Pharmaceutical industry analysts suggest the divestiture of Ratiopharm could generate about 5.0 billion euros ($6.4 billion). The company, which claims to be Europe's largest generic business, posted sales last year of about 1.8 billion euros.

The Merckle family have so far declined all comment. The main potential purchasers of the company include the Israeli generics giant Teva, which failed to acquire the generics business of Merck KGaA but is in the process of completing an agreed $7.46 billion takeover of US group Barr (Marketletter July 28), and the French prescription medicines major Sanofi-Aventis, together with a number of private equity companies.

Interestingly, Sanofi-Aventis, which is aiming to expand its generics business with the purchase of the whole of Czech drugmaker Zentiva for around $2.3 billion (Marketletters passim), is locked into a legal wrangle with Ratiopharm, which has approval to market a copy version of the French company's blockbuster anticoagulant Plavix (clopidogrel) in Germany (Marketletter August 4). The German firm has also gained a recommendation from the European regulatory authorities for a biosimilar neutropenia drug, Ratiograstim, a solution of filgrastim for injection or infusion (Marketletter March 3).