Industry Trends and Generic Drugs

Emerging-market and established-product growth strategies

Abbott gains the rights to at least 24 Zydus products and will have an option for an additional 40 products. Abbott anticipates that the agreement will produce the first product launches in 2012.



In March 2010, AstraZeneca (London) signed a license and supply agreement with the Indian Drug Company and manufacturer Torrent Pharmaceuticals, under which Torrent will supply to AstraZeneca a portfolio of generic medicines for emerging markets.


In 2009, GlaxoSmithline (GSK, London) partnered with India's Dr. Reddy Laboratories (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) under which Dr. Reddy will manufacture and supply drugs to GSK, which will license and comarket the drugs in various countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
Source: http://blogs.veedacr.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=278
 
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Risks of the past are benefits in the present

Five years ago, Novartis was viewed as a lumbering giant in the pharmaceutical world--a behemoth that was running out of products and bereft of a bulging pipeline. The Swiss drug maker, which was known for its branded pharmaceutical products, made a fateful decision in February 2005: In a bid to create the world's largest generic drug-maker, it bought Germany's Hexal and Eon Labs, its U.S. division, for about $8.3 billion at the time.



Today, Novartis's bet appears to have paid off. The giant drug maker said second-quarter net profit jumped 19% to $2.46 billion (1.92 billion euros) compared with $2.04 billion in the same period a year ago. The company said sales in its pharmaceuticals business offset healthcare cost-cutting efforts by some European governments.


Contributing to the stronger profits was Novartis's generics business where sales grew 11% to $1.97 billion, outpacing the 8% sales rise in the company's core pharmaceuticals business. Though Sandoz's second-quarter sales beat consensus estimates by 1.4%, its core earnings before interest and taxes missed consensus forecasts by 3.3%, UBS said in a research note.


The Swiss drug maker's earnings helped lift pharmaceuticals stocks within Bloomberg's European 500 index, pharmaceuticals notched a 0.81% gain, making them the second-best performer in early trading. Among the biggest gainers in the drug sector were Elan and Novartis.
Source: http://blogs.veedacr.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=319


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Is there enough left in the Indian market?



MNC pharmaceuticals firms that left India in the 1970's and 1980's when the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) began to squeeze margins, are now coming back even as a host of Indian firms are exiting, to a great extent, because they find the price controls onerous. The latest to join this group — Mylan bought Matrix Laboratories in 2006, Daiichi Sankyo bought Ranbaxy in 2008, Frensenius Kabi bought Dabur Pharma in 2008, Sanofi Aventis bought Shantha Biotech in 2009 and Hospira bought Orchid Chemicals' injectables business in 2009 — is Piramal Healthcare which has sold off 350 branded drugs along with one manufacturing unit to Abbott Laboratories for $3.72 billion (Rs 17,000 crore).

Source:http://blogs.veedacr.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=284