Merck & Co plans to expand business in South Africa signing deal with Adcock Ingram

Further enforcing its efforts in emerging pharmaceutical  markets, US drug giant Merck & Co (known as MSD outside the USA and Canada) yesterday announced a strategic collaboration between MSD South Africa and Adcock Ingram, a publicly-held South African company, to co-promote and distribute a number of established MSD products in South Africa.

The products that will be jointly promoted by MSD and Adcock Ingram include over-the-counter (OTC) products and selected prescription medicines currently registered in South Africa by MSD and Schering-Plough, which it acquired last year. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Merck is not the first to view the South African market, which was valued at around $2 billion for 2008 and expected to be worth $3 billion in 2012. Late last year, UK giant GlaxoSmithKline completed a deal with local drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare, buying a 19% stake in the latter, as part of a wide ranging agreement which includes combining commercial activities in Sub-Saharan Africa and the divestment of several assets ' notably eight specialty drugs - to Aspen (The Pharma Letter December 2, 2009).