Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., along with Goodwin Procter LLP advise Biocon Biologics Limited in its acquisition of the biosimilars business of Viatris Inc., for up to $3.34 billion in stock and cash

March 14, 2022

Biocon Biologics Limited (“BBL”), a subsidiary of Biocon Limited, announced on February 28, 2022 that it would acquire the biosimilars business of Viatris Inc. (“Viatris”), to create a unique and fully integrated global biosimilars enterprise, in a $3.34 billion deal. BBL will pay Viatris $2 billion in cash and $1 billion in convertible preferred equity when the deal closes, which is expected to occur in the second half of 2022. BBL will also pay Viatris up to $335 million in additional cash payments in 2024. The convertible preferred equity will give Viatris a stake of at least 12.9% in BBL, which, as part of the transaction will target an IPO in India as early as late 2023. Viatris was formed by the 2020 combination of Mylan NV with Upjohn Inc., the generics unit of Pfizer Inc.

Bengaluru based BBL, which has collaborated on generic drugs since 2009 with Mylan, were represented by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. and Goodwin Procter LLP.

The transaction team of Shardul Amarchand was led by Iqbal Khan, Partner; Ambarish, Partner; and Devika Menon, Senior Associate.

The transaction team of Goodwin Procter was led by partners Graham Defries and Michael R. Patrone.

Kunal Kashyap of Allegro Capital Pvt. Ltd. provided financial advice to BBL. General counsel Akhilesh Nand and associate director of legal Arindam Datta worked on the deal at BBL.

Viatris was represented by partners Mark Greene and Aaron Gruber of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP for legal matters and Tom Davidson and Tarek Aguizy at PJT Partners Inc. for financial advice. AlixPartners LLP advised Viatris’ management team on its comprehensive strategic review. Mohit Saraf at Saraf and Partners advised Viatris on Indian law aspects.