New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- Mumbai-listed drugmaker Fredun Pharmaceuticals Ltd has acquired a pet-wellness brand from herbal supplements maker Wellbeing Nutrition to build the category.
The company said in a stock-exchange filing it has acquired the pet oral-strips product Furlicks from Wellbeing Nutrition, a unit of pharmaceutical firm USV. It didn't disclose the terms of the transaction.
"We see Furlicks as more than an addition to our portfolio. It is a differentiated platform with the potential to build a significant pet-wellness business," said Fredun Medhora, MD and CFO, Fredun Pharmaceuticals.
"Our focus is to scale Furlicks while preserving what makes the brand special: its innovation, simplicity and deep understanding of pet parents," Medhora added.
Furlicks is a pet-wellness brand which offers oral-strip solutions. Its portfolio spans categories including skin and coat, gut health, joint care, calming, oral care and multivitamins.
The deal comes amid growing pet owners' awareness of and willingness to invest in nutrition and specialised products for pets.
Fredun said its immediate focus for Furlicks will be scaling the existing business by introducing 12 new stock keeping units (SKUs) in the first phase, with 32 new SKUs aligned for launch in the second phase. Over time, the company plans to shape Furlicks from a "differentiated oral-strip proposition into a broader everyday pet-wellness platform."
For Wellbeing, this deal comes nearly six months after USV acquired it for Rs 1,583 crore. Founded in 2019, Wellbeing operates in the nutraceutical segment offering a digital-first array of herbal supplement products for immunity, gut, sleep, essentials, beauty, sports, kids' nutrition, weight, bone and joints and cognition.
USV, which is one of the largest suppliers of oral anti-diabetic and cardiovascular drugs in the country, is diversifying its healthcare portfolio by expanding into India's consumer wellness market, thereby seeking to build a comprehensive portfolio across health and wellness. With the impending loss of exclusivity of weight loss drugs globally, USV is also entering the GLP-1 therapy segment with its brand Usema.
USV is best known for brands such as Ecospirin in the cardiac segment and Glycomet in the anti-diabetic vertical. It also operates a consumer healthcare business, where it sells global brands such as Sebamed in a partnership with Germany's Sebapharma, as well as in-house nutraceutical brands like Diataal.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.