The Hindu Business Line : Orchid Chemicals gearing up for European foray

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Chennai Jan. 30 For Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd the year 2007-08 will be a memorable one, a year in which it will step into the European markets. Coming "within a week", is an announcement of a tie-up with a "large European pharma company" for marketing Orchid's products in the continent, according to Orchid's Managing Director, Mr K. Raghavendra Rao.

In 2007-08, the company will launch a range of Cephalosporins (a family of antibiotics). These products were introduced in the US market over the last one year and have been responsible for the company's better financial performance. Its (consolidated) net profit for the first three quarters, at Rs 60 crore, is higher than that for the whole of last year, Rs 57 crore.

Now, the company is going through the process of securing European approvals for launch there, which Mr Rao believes is a matter of formality. The European market for these antibiotics is worth $700 million (Rs 3,150 crore).

In addition to these Orchid will launch Pencillin-based product, Tazobactum-Piperacillin, in Europe, seeking a slice of the Rs 1,100-crore market. This product, that should go off-patent next month, was to be launched in the US market first. But the innovator has been trying to prevent the patent's expiry on technical grounds, which Orchid is fighting against.

In addition to the entry into Europe, Orchid will also launch five non-antibiotic formulations and a Cephalasporin-based anti-infective, Cefdirin, in the US market. Cefdirin goes off-patent in the US in May. Mr Rao said that the US market for the non-antibiotic formulations and Cefdirin were $5 billion and $750 million, respectively. Even a small share would be big money, he said.

Diabetes drug delay

The launch of the new anti-diabetes drug will be further delayed. The Phase-I I A trials (testing the drug on affected humans) have not thrown up conclusive data about the working of the drug. "We could not draw any statistically significant conclusions from the data," Mr Rao said, adding that the only option was to do an extended trial (on more humans and higher dosage for longer period). The results of these trials would come out in June.

It was first said that the drug could be launched in January 2006, but the timeline changed to September. It now appears that the drug would not be in the market at least for a year from now.

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