Booster dose

New Delhi, March 16: Ranbaxy has moved to the next round of bidding for the generic business of German pharmaceutical firm Merck.

Sources said Ranbaxy has joined European rivals Teva, Mylan and Actavis in the next round to acquire the estimated $6-billion generic business of Merck.

Ranbaxy officials declined to comment on the development. The company had earlier said it had made a non-binding bid for Merck’s generic business.

Malvinder Singh, CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy, said the company was looking at evaluating the assets and was going to be practical about it.

“We are not in a rat race for acquisition but are focused on creating value for shareholders in the best way we can,” he said.

Merck is hiving off its generic unit to concentrate on branded formulations.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was also in the race but it had pulled out citing overvaluation.

Ranbaxy has a tough race ahead as the foreign contenders have deep pockets and are expected to bid aggressively for the Merck arm.

Meanwhile, Ranbaxy has received a tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market zolpidem tartrate tablets to treat insomnia.

A company statement said its drug was a bio-equivalent of the Ambien tablets of Sanofi Aventis. It stated that the drug had annual sales worth $2.12 billion.