Advent International said Zentiva would make a great platform on which to build a generics powerhouse when it bought the European generics unit from Sanofi last year for $2.2 billion. Since then, the private equity investor has quickly piled on more acquisitions and manufacturing sites as it builds a significant generics operation.   

        Zentiva now has a deal to buy Labormed, the Romania-based Central and Eastern European business, of Alvogen, which includes a 71,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Bucharest. Zentiva is also taking on Labormed’s 1,000 employees. Terms were not disclosed. 

        Labormed manufactures more than 200 generic and over-the-counter products,  including brands like Lactacyd and Persen, and sells into in Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Balkan markets, in addition to Romania, the companies said.

        RELATED: Sanofi, Advent finally shake hands on $2.2B European generics sale

        This deal follows one last month, when Zentiva added a manufacturing plant in Ankleshwar, Gujarat it picked up from Sanofi for Rs 2,617 million ($36.5 million). The 32-year-old plant produces intermediates and formulations and has an annual capacity for more than 6 billion tablets.

        Earlier this year, Zentiva bought Romanian food supplement and OTC maker Solacium as well as Creo Pharma, a drug wholesaler in the U.K.  

        Zentiva says it also is upgrading its manufacturing network and capabilities, including multi-million dollar investments in facilities in Prague and Bucharest.  

        RELATED: CVC talks $4B Alvogen sale with Shanghai after just 2 years of ownership

        Former Actavis CEO Robert Wessman formed Alvogen in 2009 and had built it into a maker of generics, over-the counter and biosimilar drugs when it was acquired in 2015 for about $2 billion by CVC Capital Partners and Singapore state fund Temasek. But as the generics market in the U.S. softened, there were reports the owners were ready to unload the company, hoping to get as much as $4 billion. Then last year, Reuters reported the owners were putting Alvogen’s Eastern European business up for sale separately.