Orchid Chemicals to acquire US-based Karalex Pharma

Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a Chennai-based pharmaceutical company, has entered into an agreement to acquire US-based generic marketing company Karalex Pharma LLC, in an all-cash deal. The company has declined to disclose the acquisition cost and said the transaction is expected to close by this month, subject to customary closing conditions. "Through this acquisition, Orchid has created its presence in the front-end US market and will be able to reach its generic products to the US customers directly," according to company's official statement. "With this acquisition we have established our presence in the generic sales and marketing and it will also provide a strong commercial US-based sales capability to Orchid, paving the way for synergistic returns from our upcoming and long-term strategic generic pharmaceuticals pipeline comprising key first-to-file and Paragraph-IV products. This move also endows Orchid, for the first time, with a complete end-to-end coverage capability of the entire generic pharmaceutical business cycle from product development to product sales and would enable Orchid to internalise value," said K Raghavendra Rao, managing director, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Karalex Pharma is a generic pharmaceuticals company focused exclusively on the US healthcare market. Karalex Pharma LLC., was launched in 2007 as a Pharmaceutical company focused on marketing and sales services to US classes of trade for developers and manufacturers of generic Pharmaceuticals. Karalex Pharma founders' have launched over 100 generic pharmaceutical products in the US with a combined value in excess of $1 billion.