By Kashish Tandon and Rishika Sadam
April 26 (Reuters) – Sun Pharmaceutical Industries will buy U.S. drugmaker Organon & Co in an all-cash deal valued at about $11.75 billion including debt, for the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharmaceutical company.
The move comes as Sun, India’s biggest drugmaker by market value, steps up a push into higher-margin specialty medicines with a sharper focus on areas such as dermatology, oncology and obesity to offset declining U.S. sales.
Shifting tariff policies in the United States have squeezed margins for one of Indian drugmakers most exposed to the American market, prompting it to keep open the option of expanding manufacturing there.
Though positive from an earnings standpoint, the deal is unlikely to materially change Sun’s position in the United States, where Organon has a relatively small footprint, said Shrikant Akolkar of Nuvama Institutional Equities.
“It also gives Sun access to markets such as China, Brazil and other emerging regions where its presence has been limited, helping it scale up as a branded and specialty drugs player,” the pharma analyst added.
Sun Pharma, valued at more than $40 billion, said it would buy Organon for $14.00 a share, or a premium of more than 24% to the April 24 closing price.
It plans to fund the deal through cash and committed bank financing, with Organon carrying net debt of about $8.6 billion as of December 31, 2025.
For the same period, Sun’s debt was roughly $198.4 million and profit stood at $1.16 billion.
With funding coming from a strong balance sheet, debt concerns should ease by the third year, positioning Sun as a more dominant player by decade’s end, Akolkar added.
Sun Pharma’s shares rose 8.5% after the news and were set for their best day since August 2021.
The acquisition is also expected to strengthen Sun’s women’s health portfolio and mark its entry into biosimilars.
It will gain access to Organon’s portfolio of more than 70 women’s health and general medicines sold across about 140 countries, adding global scale and a steady cash‑generating business alongside its specialty pipeline.
($1=94.1312 rupees)
(Reporting by Mihika Sharma, Akanksha Khushi and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Writing by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Clarence Fernandez)
Comments