French drugmaker Sanofi has confirmed market speculation that it is talking to Advent International about a sale of its European generics division, which trades as Zentiva. The company announced on Apr. 16 that the two sides have entered exclusive negotiations with the private equity investor, which has made a bid of €1.9 billion ($2.5 billion)  

The venerable generics producer headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, traces its history back to the 15^th century. The company with sales of €760 million in 2017 operates in 50 countries and markets drugs in disease areas including cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders.

Reports said other private equity investors also were keen to get their hands on Zentiva, so that Sanofi had its choice of suitors.

According to the news agency Bloomberg, Advent and BC Partners competed fiercely against each other, with Brazilian drugmaker EMS and leveraged buyout specialist Carlyle also counted among the final bidders. Other press reports said private equity firm Nordic Capital and Indian drugmaker Torrent Pharma quit the race for cost reasons.

The divestment of the generics business is seen as the culmination of the new strategy launched more than two years ago by CEO Olivier Brandicourt, aimed at shifting the drugmaker’s focus to biotech and new medicines.  A sale of the generics arm would push the value of transactions the French player has announced this year to well over $17 billion.

Deals include the $11.6 billion acquisition of Bioverativ to expand in hemophilia treatments and the $4.8 billion purchase of nanobody biotech Ablynx to gain an experimental medicine for another rare bleeding disorder. On the sidelines, Sanofi has also just concluded the divestment of 12 pharma brands it considers non-core to Cooper-Vemedia for €158 million.

This year’s buy-and-sell spree was preceded in 2016 by the swap of Sanofi's animal health unit Merial for Boehringer Ingelheim’s consumer health business.