Thomas & Andreas Strüngmann

There's more than one secret to the success of the twin brothers who recently agreed to sell Hexal, a German generic drugmaker, to Swiss-based Novartis (NVS ). Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann, 55, have a reputation for being tough negotiators, for making fast decisions, and for being a couple of nice guys.

When the sale was announced in February, the consensus among European analysts was that the price of nearly $8.3 billion for Hexal and Eon Labs Inc., its strategic partner in the U.S., was high. (The Strüngmanns hold a majority stake in Eon.) But Novartis was determined to do the deal, which will make its generic division, Sandoz, the largest generic-drug company in the world. Before the announced sale, which likely will be green-lighted by European and American regulators later this year, Hexal was No. 2 in the German generics market, the second-largest after the U.S. Its sales had more than doubled in five years, to $1.65 billion in 2004. At the same time, Hexal has been expanding in Latin America and Asia. Eon Labs is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. generics market, with 31% growth from 2003 to 2004, when sales reached $431 million.