Dr Reddy's completes acquisition of Habitrol from Novartis

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has announced that it has closed the acquisition of Habitrol brand (an over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy transdermal patch) from Novartis Consumer Health Inc following issuance of the proposed consent order from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on November 26, 2014. The company had earlier entered into an asset purchase agreement with Novartis Consumer Health Inc to acquire the title and rights of Habitrol brand and to market the product in the US market.
 
With this closure, the company has assumed responsibility for the product and will commence shipments of the product in the market shortly.
 
In October this year, Dr Reddy’s had signed an agreement to acquire the Habitrol range of OTC nicotine patches from Novartis for an undisclosed sum. Novartis had to divest Habitrol following the announcement of GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis in April 2014 to combine their global consumer healthcare operations into a business with annual sales of around $10.4 billion. GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have a presence in the smoking-cessation category worldwide through a range of brands. GlaxoSmithKline holds a leading position in the US smoking-cessation market with the NicoDerm CQ nicotine patch and Nicorette nicotine gum and lozenge.
 
Hence, Novartis decided to divest Habitrol as the two companies were in process of streamlining their portfolios to fructify their merger deal by the first half of 2015.