GSK to buy Chinese drug firm for $70 million

GlaxoSmithKline will buy a Chinese pharmaceutical company for about $70 million, a small deal that reinforces GSK's efforts to expand in important emerging markets.

Buying Nanjing MeiRui Pharma will give GSK new urology drugs and a manufacturing facility in China. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, GSK announced this morning.

GSK, which has its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park and about 5,000 local employees, is seeking other deals to boost its business in fast-growing emerging markets, including India.

Nanjing MeiRui sells Prostat to treat enlarged prostate and Sheniting for overactive bladder syndrome. China is expected to overtake Japan as the world's second-biggest drug market, after the United States, in 2015, reports IMS Health.

GSK has about $10 billion in cash and CEO Andrew Witty has said he's seeking more deals that will allow the company to expand in emerging markets, consumer products and vaccines, to help diversify its business.

GSK's American depositary receipts, similar to common stock for foreign companies, rose 27 cents $39.35 this morning. The ADRs are down 8 percent in the past year.