Aurobindo Pharma announced that its wholly owned step-down subsidiary, Agile Pharma B.V. (Netherlands) has entered into an agreement on 13 July 2018 to acquire commercial operations and certain supporting infrastructure in five European countries viz. the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic from Apotex International Inc. a Canadian pharmaceutical company engaged in the manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products.

The acquisition is in line with Aurobindo's strategy to strengthen and grow its European business and to expand in Eastern Europe.

V. Muralidharan, SVP of European Operations for Aurobindo, said, ''The acquisition announced today is in line with our strategy to grow and diversify our business in Europe. Acquiring Apotex' businesses in these key five countries will allow us to further expand our product offering, including OTC medicines in the Netherlands, and considerably strengthen our position in Eastern Europe. In Poland the established brand name ''APO'' will allow us to access a significant prescription and brand driven market. In the other countries we will improve our market position by adding commercial operations with strong local knowledge, positioning us to maximize the potential of our current products and the launches that are planned over the next years. We expect a seamless integration of the acquired businesses with the rest of the Aurobindo group given the success we have achieved in Europe to date.''

V. Muralidharan added, ''We believe this acquisition is a key step towards our goal of becoming one of the leading generics companies in Europe.'' 

Shares of the company declined Rs 24.05, or 3.99%, to trade at Rs 578.85. The total volume of shares traded was 162,505 at the BSE (12.42 p.m., Monday).