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BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
13th August, 2005:Indian major Ranbaxy
Laboratories and Nippon Chemiphar, has launched
voglibose tablets in Japan. Introduced under the
brand name Vogseal in 0.2 mg and 0.3 mg strengths,
the product is used in the treatment of diabetes.
Vogseal will be made available at medical
institutions across Japan through a network of
wholesalers, an official release said.
The drug will be sold in Japan under the Ranbaxy /
Nihon Pharmaceutical Industry label, but will be
marketed through Nippon Chemiphar and Nihon
Pharmaceutical Industry.
Ranbaxy is India’s leading pharmaceutical company,
one of only a handful so far to achieve
international prominence. Manufacturing is
conducted mainly in India, but also in other
countries, such as Ireland.
The past few years have seen a concerted effort to
break into the US and European markets, with a
wide degree of success. Ranbaxy received 14 final
ANDA approvals in 2004, more than any other
company in that year.
In 2004 revenues reached Rs54,512 million
(US$1,200 million), an increase of 13.0% in local
currency terms over 2003. This takes Ranbaxy over
the US$1 billion mark for the first time. The
company aims to achieve sales of US$2 billion by
2007 and US$5 billion by 2012.
Ranbaxy is at the forefront of attempts to bring
cheaper generic HIV/AIDS medicines to developing
countries. It is keen to get approval for use
under the US PEPFAR programme as well as by the
WHO. Concerns over bioequivalence data have
delayed this, however, and Ranbaxy has had to
re-obtain the necessary data.
2005 will see a major legal case in the USA, as
Ranbaxy attempts to contest the validity of key
patents protecting Lipitor, Pfizer’s US$10 billion
cholesterol drug. Ranbaxy is also contesting
Lipitor patents in other countries, and won a
favourable patent decision in Austria in March
2005. It already sells the drug in India.
The company claims its long term aim is to move
away from generics and into original drug
research. It already has an R&D agreement in India
with GlaxoSmithKline, for example. This is partly
spurred by the proposed tightening of India’s
patent laws beginning in 2005. For the time being,
however, generics will be the mainstay of the
company’s revenues. The company has stated that
the new patent law will not affect its product
portfolio.
Nippon Chemiphar is a medium-size pharmaceutical
company in Japan. It was established in 1950, and
listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange since 1971. Its
exiting major products cover the areas of central
nervous, digestive, cardiovascular, ulcer remedies
and others.BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT |
