Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Mar 12, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Mar 12, 2006 |
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Corporate
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Announcements Emcure may launch Bristol's AIDS drug by Dec P.T. Jyothi Datta
Mumbai , March 11 The global AIDS-drug related deal between Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and the Pune-based Emcure may have been low-key in the Indian market. But Emcure expects to bring Atazanavir (used in the second line treatment of AIDS) into the local market by the year-end. About a month ago, Bristol Myers had inked a royalty-free technology-transfer agreement on Atazanavir with Emcure and Aspen, Africa's largest generics manufacturer. Sold by BMS under the brand name Reyataz, Atazanavir is a once-a-day protease inhibitor for AIDS drugs that was approved in the US in mid-2003. Emcure will supply the drug to both Indian and African markets, said Mr A.K. Khanna, Director-Operations with Emcure. But he expects to launch Atazanavir in India by December 2006.
Pricing not known
However, there is no word on how the drug would be priced or the size of the market in the African countries. Countries are still in the process of administering drugs in the first-line of treatment. The need for the second-line will increase subsequently, he said. There is no sharing of revenues, he said of the deal that is also sans royalty payments. Explaining what a company like BMS gets from such a deal, he said they were building capacities towards the company's global commitment to tackle AIDS.
Designated licensee
The patent on the drug is post-1995 and this entitles BMS to exclusivity if the company does have a patent application pending at the Indian patent office and if the patent eventually gets granted. However, Mr Khanna said that Emcure was the designated licensee in the local market and that was unlikely to be upset. Emcure has been a rather recent entrant into the ever-expanding bracket of Indian companies that supply anti-AIDS drugs to the world. Drug-makers such as Cipla, Ranbaxy, Hetero and Matrix have not only supplied to individual markets requiring AIDS drugs, but also to high-profile organisations like the Clinton Foundation.
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