Ranbaxy Laboratories To Acquire Companies In India

Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories, the country''s second-biggest drugmaker by market value, mulls to acquire companies in India, a market that is hoped to rank among the world''s biggest in the next eight years. They will certainly acquire a couple of drugmakers. India''s pharmaceutical market likely to soar to $20 billion by 2015 from $6.3 billion a decade earlier, overtaking Brazil, Mexico and Turkey to rank among the world''s 10 largest as increasing incomes and a diabetes epidemic spur demand for drugs. The country''s patent laws were stiffened in January 2005 to recognise product patents and stop the copying of medicines patented after 1995 by using a different manufacturing process. Small and mid-sized companies will find it tougher to survive in this environment. In September that Ranbaxy may buy drug-ingredient makers in India. That will help it lower costs and increase its capacity to sell generic medicines in the US and Europe.