India's drug maker Sun Pharmaceuticals is buying Israel's Taro Pharmaceutical Industries for 454 million US dollars in an all-cash deal, local media reported Tuesday.

The two companies Tuesday signed a definitive agreement to this effect, news website businessstandard.com reported.

The acquisition will help Sun Pharmaceuticals raise its share in the 70 billion US dollar global generics (off-patent) market from less than 1 percent now.

Taro had sales of 298 million US dollars and profit of 5.7 million US dollars in 2005, the last year for which information is available, the website said.

Taro has production units in Israel, Canada and the United States. North America, which represents more than half of the world market for pharmaceutical products, accounts for 90 percent of Taro's business.

"We intend to build on Taro's expertise in dermatology and paediatrics, along with specialty and generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter products. With the addition of 170 talented scientists to our team, we look forward to an increasing number of product filings of higher complexity," the website quoted Sun Chairman and Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi as saying.

This is the second biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharmaceutical company after Dr Reddy's Laboratories' 572 million US dollar buyout of Germany's Betapharm.

Source:Xinhua