India's Sun Pharma plans gradual phase-out of Ranbaxy-branded drugs in U.S.: sources

[April 09, 2014]  MUMBAI (Reuters) — India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd plans to begin phasing out sales of generic drugs branded as Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd products in the United States after completing a $3.2 billion takeover of its loss-making rival, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Ranbaxy drugs sold in the United States will be gradually rebranded as Sun Pharma treatments as part of a strategy to turn around the company that is being bought from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Ltd. The brand is likely to continue to be present in other markets, the sources said.

The sources declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media on the subject.

Uday Baldota, Sun Pharma's senior vice president of finance and accounts, didn't comment directly when asked whether Sun Pharma will phase out Ranbaxy-branded products in the United States. "Overall Ranbaxy brand has a value," he said. "We will find ways of using it and preserving it."

The plan to phase out the brand will be part of a slew of changes at Ranbaxy, including an intense lobbying push with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to lift bans on exports from Ranbaxy's India plants over production quality concerns.

Sun Pharma on Monday agreed to buy Ranbaxy in an all-share deal, betting it can fix the factory quality glitches that plagued Daiichi Sankyo and got Ranbaxy's India-made drugs barred from the United States.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Zeba Siddiqui; editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

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