Abbott Laboratories, which completed its acquisition of the Rs17,000-crore Piramal Healthcare Ltd's domestic pharma business on Wednesday, will maintain the latter as an independent unit reporting directly to the global company's newly created 'established products division'.

At the same time, Abbott plans to make India a "prime focus target" to outperform the industry growth of 15 per cent and aims at a turnover of $500 million in India by 2011, company officials told the media in various interviews.

The new parent company doesn't anticipate a sudden integration of operations with the business of the almost century-old subsidiary Abbott India Ltd, Michael J Warmuth, senior vice-president and the new head of Abbott's established products division, told Mint on Thursday.

Sales of Piramal's domestic formulation business acquired by Abbott stood at around $430 million for the year ended March 2010.

 ''Piramal's healthcare solutions business has a large portfolio of 350 branded generics, including several market-leading brands that hold the Indian company's reputation. We will operate this as a separate business unit, led by its current local management team,'' Warmuth said. The division focuses on branded generics and looks for opportunities in emerging markets.

Abbott, which has become India's largest drug maker by market share after acquiring the Piramal business, completed the deal, which was signed in May, ahead of its original schedule of six months.

Primal Healthcare's pharma business had 8,000-odd employees on its payroll. With this acquisition, Abbott India has become the largest employer in the Indian drug industry, with a combined employee strength of at least 10,500. This makes it the largest employee group in any country outside the US for the company, which has around 90,000 workers worldwide.

The Abbott-Piramal deal was the largest acquisition in the Indian drug industry in terms of size and premium, valuing the domestic drug business at nine times the 2009-10 sales. The valuation was based on a projection of 25 per cent business growth.

The Indian drug formulation market has posted annual growth of 15-16 per cent in the last couple of years.

''It was a large valuation, but our investment was never intended to be on a short-term perspective,'' said Warmuth. ''Since we were so convinced about this market's growth potential, we had to pay a premium to purchase a premium asset with long-term focus here.''

The Indian drug market stood at $8 billion (around Rs37,300 crore) in March, and is estimated to more than double by 2015, according to market research agencies. Warmuth expects Abbott's pharma sales in India to exceed $2.5 billion by 2020.

Abbott India, which is currently focused on drugs and nutritional products in the local market, posted annual sales of Rs. 784 crore as of November 2009. Abbott India follows a December-November accounting year.

''We considered three key factors before identifying Piramal as a target in India. They were the cultural fit, a portfolio of established brands and the management skill,'' Warmuth said. ''In fact, there was a scarcity for such assets in the emerging markets, including India. So the price was quite justified.''

Warmuth said Piramal's proven business model in India and experienced local leadership team, combined with the global resources of Abbott, will allow it to scale up the business in this emerging market. ''We are committed to retain the talents and the products of this new Indian asset to grow the business here,'' he added.

The acquisition of Piramal's domestic formulation division in May catapulted Abbott to being among the top ten pharma companies in the country in terms of market share in the organised domestic retail market, surpassing generic major Cipla.

Piramal Healthcare Solutions will continue to operate as a standalone business, and will not be merged with the existing Abbott India operations. The acquired business is split into two: healthcare solutions and true care units.

"These are proven business model and working very well. We don't need to change them. Also, it can be disruptive for these businesses. So they will continue as a separate business under the Establish Products Division," Warmuth said. He is responsible for the acquired unit.

The two business units - healthcare solutions and true care - will continue to be headed by Sudarshan Jain and Neeraj Garg, respectively.

Talking about Abbott's strategy, he said, "India is a prime target for us. We want to focus on India first as it is growing at 15% year-on-year, and outperforms the industry growth at over 20%. Later, we will look at export opportunities to the overseas markets."

On how long it will take for the multinational to recover its $3.72 billion investment in India, Warmuth said that there was no forecast available, but said, "In terms of sales, Abbott estimates the growth of its Indian pharmaceutical business to approach 20% annually, with expected sales of more than $2.5 billion by 2020."

The company has retained all employees of the acquired unit and has manpower of 7,500-odd people, with an overall staff strength of 10,000 across all its businesses in the country. Besides the focus on branded generics portfolio (generics sold under a brand name), Abbott is also keen on innovator or proprietary drugs from India. But these are outside the purview of the EPD, which only focuses on branded generics.

"We also have a strong R&D pipeline, and will see how to build the business by identifying unmet commercial needs," he said.

 Though Abbott has been operating in India since 1910, it has become active over the last few years with the parent acquiring Solvay last year. The Solvay deal gave Abbott a better foothold in emerging markets in eastern Europe and Asia, where the US company has limited sales.