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news.GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plans to acquire China-based drug firm Nanjing MeiRui Pharma, as part of its plans to accelerate its exposure to the fast-growing emerging markets.
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Nanjing MeiRui is the operating entity of Pagoda Pharma Group, a British Virgin Islands-based holding company that established the Chinese health-care company in 1996.
Branded drugmakers, including GSK, worldwide are expected to face huge losses in annual sales by 2016 as patents expire and cheap generic versions of their blockbuster drugs foray into the market.
GSK, which sells Avodart as a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate), intends to leverage Nanjing MeiRui’s presence in the China urology business and build awareness for the product.
GSK, with about $10bn cash on its balance sheet, has either acquired or entered into marketing partnerships over the last few years across countries from South Africa to India to China.
In 2009, the UK based firm formed a joint venture with China’s Shenzhen Neptunus Interlong Bio-Technique to manufacture and sell flu vaccines in China.