PARIS, (Reuters) – France’s Sanofi-Aventis plans to buy Brazilian drugmaker Medley in a deal that values the company at 500 million euros and will turn Sanofi into the top generics manufacturer in Latin America.
Sanofi-Aventis said in a statement yesterday that it had signed an agreement to buy Medley, which is Brazil’s third largest drugmaker and top maker of cheap copies of drugs that other companies patented, with sales of about 153 million euros last year.
Medley has about 127 generic drugs in its portfolio.
Sanofi, which earlier this month announced plans to buy Mexican generics maker Laboratorios Kendrick, is seeking to grow its business through small and medium-sized takeovers in generics, emerging markets, vaccines and over-the-counter drugs.
The acquisition of Medley is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, Sanofi said.