A press release issued by Rabo India Finance Pvt said these brands were hitherto licensed to, and were marketed by, thier joint venture company Eli Lilly Ranbaxy Ltd in India. The definitive agreements towards this end were signed recently. Nicholas Piramal is moving to strengthen its strategic presence in the hospital sector as well as its focus in anti-infectives, which are among one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the local pharmaceutical industry.

The buyout, effective in January 2000, will not include the marketing team, though the exact details on the consideration involved could not be got. The four brands have a combined turnover of Rs 8-9 crore and analysts say that the consideration could be in the region of Rs 10 crore. The release adds that Eli Lilly Ranbaxy had, earlier this year, performed a strategic review of its product portfolio. "Based on the analysis, it decided to focus on key therapeutic areas such as endocrinology, oncology, cardiovascular and major anti-bacterials as thrust areas, in which it has a competitive advantage in India and globally. As a result, the brands mentioned were identified for divestment."

Eli Lilly Ranbaxy is a 50:50 joint venture between the two partners and has been marketing a range of formulations like Illetin 30/70, Humalog and Huminsulin for diabetes.

The sale of the four brands, analysts say, adds fuel to speculation that the future of the joint venture is somewhat shaky. "The two partners have not had very smooth sailing in their previous alliances and the cost-benefit ratio of maintaining this joint venture may be disturbed by the brand sell-off. But, this is assuming that no new products would be marketed by this venture, " an analyst with a leading Indian brokerage said. There is, however, no official word on this.