The Indian company, which has a cash balance of Rs 10,000 crore, is gearing up to take over the US -based contract drug maker Cambridge Major Laboratories for over 200 million dollars, say business sources on Monday. Fox News quoted, "Early stage negotiations are on and it will take a while to conclude the deal." Very recently Piramal Healthcare Ltd has completed the acquisition of the US-based Decision Resources Group (DRG) for $635 million (nearly Rs 3,400 crore). With the new addition on the anvil the Indian giant will also assume the status of being a global giant.

Reacting to the DRG acquisition, “The successful acquisition of the healthcare information and analytics leader, DRG, reflects our strategy to continue investing in strong intellectual property in the healthcare space,” Piramal Healthcare Chairman, Mr Ajay Piramal, said in an earlier statement.

The Indian drug maker is the flagship company of the Ajay Piramal-owned Piramal Group, while unlisted Cambridge Major Laboratories is known for making pharmaceutical intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients that are used in drugs. Both the companies were unavailable for comments in this regards.

Earlier India's Primal Healthcare Limited,  expressed its desire to invest Rs 7,000 Cr in pharma segment  over the next five years. “Pharmaceutical is an important sector for us but with the additional funds we have, I don’t think pharmaceutical sector alone would be able to absorb the funds,” the Chairman Ajay Piramal said. It may be noted in 2010,Mumbai-based Piramal Healthcare sold its domestic formulations business to US drug firm Abbott Laboratories for $3.72 billion (around Rs 17,500 crore). (With inputs from internet-AarKay)