Suven Pharma Approves Acquisition Of Casper Pharma For $20.5 Million

Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd. will acquire Casper Pharma Pvt. for $20.5 million (Rs 155 crore).

The board of directors in its meeting on April 5 has approved the purchase of 100% share capital of the Hyderabad-based formulations manufacturing company from its existing shareholders, according to an exchange filing. That would make Casper a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suven.

The acquisition, the filing said, is expected to be completed within 30 days. No approvals are required.

Venkat Jasti, managing director at Suven, during the third-quarter earnings call had indicated that the company’s legal and financial divisions are evaluating the acquisition.

Casper has an installed manufacturing capacity of 1.2 billion for solid oral dose forms such as tablets or capsules. Jasti, in the call, had said Casper plans to enter liquid manufacturing. Its facility is a 13-acre site with six abbreviated new drug applications filed.

Casper, according to the filing, is “ready for an U.S. FDA inspection, expected to happen within next six months”. Set up in January 2016, the company is yet to reach its “commercially viable operations”. No turnover details are available.

In 2019, Suven acquired Rising Pharma Holdings, which has an existing long-term contract with Casper for manufacturing and supply of products developed by Rising Pharma on a profit-sharing basis, Jasti had said on the earnings call.

Casper’s acquisition, according him, is aimed at having all products that are under development at Rising Pharma R&D to be exclusively manufactured at Casper.

The arrangement with Rising Pharma indicates that the business is in line with the Suven’s current pharma contract development and manufacturing business segment, which reported a revenue of around Rs 564 crore in the nine months ended December and contributed to around 60% to the company’s overall revenue.