Aspen Pharmacare Agrees to Buy Merck Manufacturing Unit

Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Africa’s largest drugmaker, agreed to buy a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit from Merck & Co. and took an option to purchase a products unit in a deal worth about $1 billion.

“The active pharmaceutical ingredients are hard to source or replicate, and this allows us strong pipelines,” Aspen Chief Executive Officer Stephen Saad said in a phone interview from the Netherlands today. “With the products bought, this should help accelerate our growth in emerging markets, especially Latin America and Asia Pacific.”