Acquisitions · Pharmaceuticals (generics)
Sawai buys US generic drug maker Upsher-Smith for ¥115.5 billion
- Buyer
- Sawai Pharmaceutical (Osaka)
- Target
- Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Maple Grove, Minnesota
- Value
- ¥115.5B (about $1.05B)
- Status
- Agreed on April 20, 2017; completed in May 2017.
- Date
- 2017-04-20
Sawai Pharmaceutical agreed to buy Upsher-Smith Laboratories, a generic drug maker in Maple Grove, Minnesota, for ¥115.5 billion, or about $1.05 billion. Sawai bought all of the company through a newly formed US subsidiary, Sawai America.
Why it matters
The deal gives Sawai, a leading generic maker in Japan, an established business in the US generics market, which it had not entered on a full scale.
How the deal was structured
Sawai set up Sawai America Inc. to hold the shares and bought all of Upsher-Smith's interests through it. Its filing set the transfer date for no later than the end of June 2017. In November 2017 Sumitomo Corporation agreed to take a minority interest in Sawai's US subsidiary for ¥23.2 billion.
What Sawai planned
Sawai said it aimed to build a firm footing in the US and enter the market in earnest. It planned to use Upsher-Smith's existing business to sell both Upsher-Smith's own pipeline products and the products Sawai had been developing for the US.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
