Gruenenthal GmbH is ready to spend 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) on acquisitions “in the near future” to expand its pain medicines business in Latin America, Chief Executive Officer Harald Stock said. The family-owned company, based in Aachen, Germany, is looking for deals in Brazil and wants to grow further in countries such as Mexico, Stock said in an interview yesterday in San Francisco, where he was attending JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s health-care conference. Gruenenthal, founded by Hermann Wirtz after World War II, makes the Palexia painkiller and Norspan patches.
