US healthcare company Viatris Inc. has put its India-focussed women’s healthcare business Famy Care Pvt. Ltd for sale as part of its global strategy to divest non-core businesses, three people familiar with the development said.
Mylan, a subsidiary of Viatris, had acquired Famy Care from the Mumbai-based Taparia family in 2015 in an all-cash deal of $800 million. The Taparia family has been approached by several buyout funds to finance a buyback should they be interested in running the business again, one of the people cited above said. “Other strategic investors, including some of the pharma companies betting big in the over-the-counter or OTC, female hygiene businesses would also be interested in buying the portfolio,” the person added.
The potential deal size of the Famy Care portfolio, or the names of buyout funds interested in the deal or the strategic players could not be immediately ascertained.
Viatris, Jefferies and the Taparia family did not immediately offer a comment on Monday evening.
Famy Care makes hormonal and female reproductive healthcare products including emergency contraceptives. The sale of Famy Care is part of Viatris’ global plan to divest what it considers as non-core.
Viatris said it was looking to exit several non-core assets to unlock shareholder value on 28 February. It said that India-based Biocon Biologics was buying Viatris’ biosimilar business for $3.35 billion in a cash and stock deal. The deal is expected to conclude soon, Viatris said in an exchange filing on Monday night.
Viatris had also said earlier that it had identified non-core opportunities including the Biocon Biologics deal that could generate the company around $9 billion in pre-tax proceeds.
“The company expects to enter additional transactions that will similarly maximize and crystallize the value of other assets by the end of 2023,” Viatris said, without naming the other businesses that it felt were non-core.
Separately, on 11 October, Bloomberg reported that Viatris was weighing the sale of its European consumer OTC business for approximately $3 billion. Meanwhile, Viatris has identified ophthalmology, gastrointestinal, and dermatology as among the key therapeutic areas it wants to focus on and expand.
As part of this focus, Viatris announced the acquisition of Famy Life Sciences, the Taparia family’s opthalmology business for $281 million all cash deal on Monday night.
On Monday, Viatris also said it was acquiring another ophthalmology business Oyster Point Pharma. Both businesses will cost Viatris approximately $700-$750 million in cash and both deals are expected to close in Q1 of 2023, the company said.
