Arrow Pharmaceuticals and Apotex Australia have this week completed the merger announced 14 months ago. The merged business will operate under the newly formed Arrotex Australia Group.
This merger forms Australia’s largest generic pharmaceutical and private label OTC business with around 50 per cent market share of the country’s generic pharmacy market.
Arrotex will be jointly owned and controlled by Dennis Bastas and Apotex Inc (Canada) as equity partners. As announced in January this year, Strides Pharma Science agreed to sell down its interest in Arrow to Mr Bastas, contingent on completion of the merger. Strides will continue to be a major supplier to Arrotex as its largest generic pharmaceutical supply partner.
As originally stated in May 2018, the key goals of the Arrotex business will be to:
- Provide improved consistency and sustainability of low cost generic pharmaceutical supplies to Australian pharmacies and the PBS.
- Expand and diversify the current product portfolio through investment in complex products in key therapeutic areas and expansion of retail pharmacy product ranges.
- Increase customer engagement through investment in professional programs and services.
- Leverage operating costs and operational synergies to build economies of scale.
The newly merged Arrotex company will be headed by Mr Bastas as Chair and CEO. The existing management team of both companies will remain largely unchanged within a restructured organisation and leadership team.
“Arrotex products will account for almost 30 per cent of all prescription volume dispensed in pharmacies across Australia,” Mr Bastas said. “That’s a significant responsibility that we now have to our customers and the Australian public to continue to provide sustainable, high quality and cost effective access to the pharmaceuticals they rely on every day.”
As the largest field force servicing the pharmacy sector, Arrotex could bring new opportunities to pharmacy through new product offerings and partnership strategies.
“It’s been a long road to completing this important transaction for all the parties involved,” Mr Bastas said. “I want to thank our staff, customers and business partners for their patience and support through this period and we look forward to an even more collaborative partnership with them now that the merger has been completed.”
