The Hindu Business Line : Natco expanding retail presence in US

Hyderabad May 15 As a part of its strategy to foray into the US market, Natco Pharma Ltd is expanding its retail presence in the US and will be acquiring two standalone pharma stores soon.

The Hyderabad-based, mid-sized pharma company is in an advanced stage of talks to acquire two stores located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "The acquisition will be completed by next month," Mr P. Bhaskara Narayana, Director and Chief Financial Officer, Natco, told Business Line here.

The company is currently running a store in New Jersey, which it acquired about nine months ago with sales of $1.5 million per month. With the addition of two more stores, its retail pharma sales in the US would go up to over $30 million per annum.

"We are selling products of all major companies, including Indian pharma majors such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's now and expect to sell Natco's own products by 2009," Mr Narayana said.

Asked about replicating the model in the domestic market, Mr Narayana said they did not have any plans now. Also the realty prices were so high in major Indian cities, that it was uneconomical. In fact, the prices were more competitive in some US cities.

Three new products

On the product front, the firm has lined up three new products for release in the next month, including two in the oncology segment. Further, it is conducting toxicology studies on two new chemical entities for treatment of blood cancer. "We are expecting them to be ready by December this year. They will be blockbusters," he added.

Besides, work on various analogues useful in the field of anti-cancer, anti-depressant and anti-ulcer therapies and on development of molecules based on new drug delivery systems was in progress.

The company had so far filed three abbreviated new drug applications and was working on others.

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