Novartis India will acquire Pfizer’s Minipress and Minipres trademarks in India for Rs 1,250 crore, as Pfizer exits the hypertension drug.

The approval came at a board meeting held on September 7, and covers both the trademarks registered in India along with certain related intellectual property rights tied to the brands.

Once the board gave its go ahead, Novartis India moved quickly, signing an asset purchase agreement and trademark assignment deeds with the two Pfizer entities on the same day.

Both the signing and the closing of the deal happened simultaneously, according to the company’s exchange filing.

Minipress XL, the drug at the centre of this deal, contains prazosin and is mainly prescribed in India to manage high blood pressure. It’s also used to treat certain urinary symptoms linked to an enlarged prostate.

Based on IQVIA data through July 2026, the brand pulled in revenue of ₹228.6 crore and had grown at a compound annual rate of 6.3% over the past four years, a touch slower than the wider category’s 9% growth over the same stretch.

There’s a reason this deal is happening now. Pfizer separately announced it will stop marketing, distributing and selling Minipress XL in India starting September 7, after its US parent decided to discontinue manufacturing the drug altogether.

As part of winding this down, Pfizer Ltd is set to receive a lump sum payment of $13.9 million, roughly ₹131.38 crore, from Pfizer Inc USA.

Novartis India has clarified that this transaction is not a related party deal, and that neither Pfizer Inc nor Pfizer Products Inc has any connection to its promoter or promoter group.

This isn’t the only recent shift involving Novartis India. Last month, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories ended its distribution and promotion agreement with the company for a set of domestic brands, a move that followed a change in Novartis India’s controlling shareholding.

That original agreement dated back to February 2022, and Dr Reddy’s will keep commercialising those brands until September 30, 2026.

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