Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Mar 05, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Mar 05, 2004 |
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Corporate
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Alliances & Joint Ventures Novartis AG seeks tie-ups with Indian companies Our Bureau
Mr Ranjit Shahani, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Novartis India Ltd, with Mr Thomas Ebeling, CEO, Novartis Pharma AG, at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. - - Shashi Ashiwal
Mumbai , March 4 THERE may not be another exclusive marketing right (EMR) from the Novartis-stable, just yet. But Novartis' roller-coaster experience with EMR, the country's first ever, for its blood-cancer drug Glivec will not deter the Swiss pharma-major from exploring collaborations with Indian companies in areas such as licensing and research, development and marketing. Mr Thomas Ebeling, CEO, Novartis Pharma AG told media persons here on Thursday that Novartis was at present collaborating with Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Torrent Pharma. "There are about 70 FDA-approved (United States Food And Drug Administration) plants in India and 200 GMP-compliant (Good Manufacturing Practices) plants. This is a vast universe," he pointed out. Novartis is seeking collaborations in therapeutic areas such as, oncology, cardiovascular disease, transplantation, nervous system disease and infectious diseases, among others. Against the backdrop of competition that its patented products are facing from generic competition in India, he said : "It is important to have generics. But it is equally, if not more, important to have patent protected products." Further, he added that the company was trying to strike a balance between being rewarded for our innovative work and delivering products to the masses at affordable prices. He cited Glivec as a case in point, where patients who could not afford the drug were given it free. Novartis also has in its stable the world's second largest generic company, Sandoz Inc — the erstwhile Geneva Pharmaceuticals Inc. With product-patents slated to come in next year, he said that drugs would continue to be launched in India with the same consistency as it is done globally. However, Novartis still viewed neighbouring China more favourably. "China is the most important growth market." India too demonstrated potential to grow rapidly, he added. Globally, Novartis expects to increase investments in sales, marketing and research and development in the current year. The company expects to grow ahead of the market trend, which is expected to grow at eight per cent this year. The company looks to have at least seven block-buster drugs (crossing the one billion sales mark) by 2008. He was unwilling to comment on the global take-over overtures being made by the company towards Aventis. However, in India he said that more investments would be seen in setting up an info-tech department to support clinical trials. Novartis' top-brass were in India to participate in the `Art of Collaboration' symposium to be held in Mumbai tomorrow. Till date, Novartis has held only three such events, one in Japan and two in the United States. Mr Ranjit Shahani, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India said that the symposium showcases Novartis' strength in various therapeutic areas and several Indian companies were expected to participate.
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