Dr Morepen Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Rs 430 crore Morepen Laboratories, has dropped its plan to acquire Coldact, the cold and cough pill of Sun Pharmaceuticals.

Kartik Raina, managing director of Dr Morepen, said: "Frankly speaking, we never really went beyond reviewing the proposal. And the negotiations had not even begun." He added that the formulation of Coldact would not allow it to be sold as an OTC product.

"Rather than reformulating of an acquired product, it would be better to launch our own product," Raina said.

He said the company was evaluating a couple of other brands in the cold, cough and analgesic segments for acquisition. "We may have dropped the idea of acquiring Coldact. But we will announce some other acquisitions shortly," said Raina. He refused to divulge further details.

Dr Morepen is gearing up for the re-launch of Burnol by April. It had acquired Burnol from Reckitt Piramal Ltd for Rs 8.95 crore in December 2001.

The company aims to reach every household with its brands. Recently, it has added a sweetener under the brand name Y-Sugar to its portfolio.

It is also launching a health drink this summer. With increasing health awareness and the growing healthcare segment, the company is quite optimistic of its position in the Rs 4,500 crore fast-moving health goods market.

The company is targeting a turnover of Rs 20 crore in its first year of operations and has earmarked 25 per cent of budget for marketing and advertising.