Mylan’s Bresch Says Strides Deal Helps Biotechnology Efforts

Mylan Inc.’s $1.6 billion agreement to buy Strides Arcolab Ltd.’s injectable-medicine unit will help the U.S. company’s push into copies of expensive biotechnology drugs, Chief Executive Officer Heather Bresch said.

“Injectables have been high on our list, because it’s something we did not have critical mass around and we saw it as an important precursor to leverage biogenerics,” Bresch said in a telephone interview today. The agreement to buy Strides’ Agila Specialties unit will add markets and increase per-share results immediately, Mylan said in a statement yesterday.