Dive Brief:
- As part of its integration of Ranbaxy Labs, which Sun Pharma acquired last year, the largest pharma company in India is selling two US-based locations.
- The facilities. located in Philadelphia and Aurora, IL, are being sold to Frontida Biopharma, a CRO with locations in the US, which is owned by Hangzhou Tigermed in China. Frontida is also buying 15 products from Sun and has agreed to continue to manufacture certain Sun products.
- Within the last year, Sun has also sold facilities in Bryan, OH and Kansas City. It is also planning to close a facility in Tipperary, Ireland, later this year.
Dive Insight:
Sun's divestment of facilities that it considers redundant or simply unnecessary coincides with continuing efforts to shore up quality-control efforts at its out-of-compliance facilities in India. Currently, it's focusing on four plants that came with the Ranbaxy acquisition.
Sun is also heavily invested in cleaning up its Halol plant after receiving a warning from the FDA last December.
Remediation at the Halol plant is critical, especially as Sun deals with the impact of slowing sales growth. The Halol plant contributes to between 7% and 8% of Sun's sales, and as much as 15% of US sales.
Sun's management team is working to assure the FDA that the problems at Halol can be fixed. If they cannot do so, the FDA can issue an import alert barring the factory in question from making medications which could be imported into the U.S. If this were to occur, it could have a devastating impact on Sun's business.