Bion Pharma, the New Jersey startup freshly launched by a cadre of former execs from Indian generic drugmaker Ranbaxy, has raised $21 million from two investors, according to a regulatory filing. The company’s aiming to raise $30 million.
Five execs at the U.S. branch of Ranbaxy quit last month, and aim through this Princeton-based startup to help Indian and European drugmakers receive regulatory clearance and expand their distribution rights in the U.S. A nice overview from the Economic Times:
This team of execs has extensive experience in dealing with the U.S. regulatory process – Ranbaxy, after all, has been wading in hot water for some eight years. Bear in mind:
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Over the past eight years, all but one of Ranbaxy’s plants were barred from importing medicines to the US and the company had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as fines as it pleaded guilty to manufacturing malpractices and other misdemeanours. Amid all its woes, the company also managed to launch the generic version of two blockbuster drugs — Pfizer’s Lipitor and Novartis’ Diovan — under a six-month exclusivity window and operations at the US plant remained functional.
“We will be discriminating in our choice of partners and will only take on players who are willing to follow the rules and meet the expectations of the US market,” CEO Krishnan told the Economic Times. “Our strategy is to have partners with whom we can work on a portfolio of products rather than pick and choose products.”