The Hindu Business Line : Over-the-counter products to drive Elder Health sales

Mumbai May 9 After poaching senior management from other pharmaceutical companies and restructuring its operations, Elder Health Care Ltd is set to actively promote over-the-counter (OTC) products in skin, oral and hair care segments.

The company aims to double its revenues on the back of product extensions and new products in its core categories, said Dr Anuj Saxena, Managing Director of Elder Health Care. Having clocked sales of Rs 41 crore up to March 2007, the company looks to touch revenues of Rs 100 crore in the current year, on the back of its OTC products, he told Business Line.

The promoter family of Mumbai-based Elder Pharmaceuticals holds over 50 percent in Elder Healthcare.

Dermatology segment

Elaborating on the strategy for the dermatology segment, he said, Elder will continue its alliance with Shahnaz Hussain, and launch the Fairone herbal soap. The product is being rolled out across the country. This is the second product under the Fairone umbrella-brand, the first being Farione fairness cream. The cream is a Rs 35-crore brand in less than 18 months of its launch, a spokesperson for the company said.

The agreement between Elder Healthcare and Shahnaz Hussain involves the payment of royalty to the latter, Dr Saxena said. Ms Hussain is also expected to endorse the brand in a commercial, he added.

By the year-end, this brand would have at least four more variants in the market, he said. By July, the company would venture into the male grooming segment with its Fairone Man. The product will be promoted by Dr Saxena, an actor-celebrity in his own right. The television commercial for the product, shot by Everest, has already been completed, he said.

The company is also set to bring in two products in the oral care segment from Farmaka of Italy - Disoral, an oral rinse with Diclofenac and Redirinse a medicated mouthwash. Disoral has been tested in clinical trials on more than 1,500 patients in Europe, a spokesperson said. Redirinse is the only Diclofenac formulation as mouthwash in the world, Dr Saxena said and indicated that it would be promoted ethically, on a doctor's prescription.

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