The Hindu Business Line : Avesthagen launches 7 botanical bioactives

Snapshot
The seven botanical bioactives will be launched under the Avesta brandname.
The bioactives will be sold through the fast-moving consumer goods channel, and the pharmacy channel.
The Avesthagen-Cipla alliance will look to roll-out its first product in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Feb. 21 Life-sciences company Avesthagen Ltd has launched seven botanical bioactives under the Avesta brandname targeting specific conditions like diabetes, bone-loss and cardiovascular-diseases.

For starters, the branded bio-active ingredients will be used in food-products, even as human trials are underway to launch the ingredients as prescription, pharmaceutical products a year later, said Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, Chairperson and Managing Director of Avesthagen.

The bioactives, manufactured at the company’s plant near Bangalore, will be sold through the fast-moving consumer goods channel, and the pharmacy channel, said Mr Samaresh Parida, Avesthagen’s Chief Operating Officer.

The company is in talks with food companies like Danone and Nestle to incorporate the ingredient in suitable products, he told Business Line. In Danone, the bioactives could be used in the dairy products, he said, but discussions are still underway with Nestle, he said. The seven bio-actives are Aspand, to control blood sugar, Teestar to moderate blood sugar levels, Cincata to maintain blood glucose levels, Bonapure to promote bone growth, Phytossea to assist inhibiting cartilege degradation, Smartchol to moderate cholestrol levels and Xanomax with antioxidant properties.

Dr Patell said that the company is taking these actives into Europe and the US, as well. In the initial roll-out, the bio-actives have been used in products from Avesta Good Earth, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avesthagen. But at the later pharmaceutical stage, Avesthagen could look to leverage a company that has a field-force, said a company executive.

Avesthagen has an existing partnership with Cipla in the biopharmaceutical space, and leveraging this tie-up to support distribution could be a possibility, Mr Parida, said.

IPO plans

Responding to queries on the company’s plan to go in for an initial public offering, he said, that the company was optimistic that market conditions would improve and Avesthagen would go in for an IPO by the end of the year.

The functional food market is estimated to be between Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore, said Mr Sandip Dang, Chief Executive Officer of Good Earth. The global market is estimated at $80 billion.

Cipla tie-up

The Avesthagen-Cipla alliance will look to roll-out its first product in the fourth quarter of 2009, Dr Patell told Business Line. The product could be an auto-immune product, a company executive said. The product roll-out is about a year behind the original timeline given by the company, she admitted, as it involved tying up several ends in terms of scale-up possibilities for manufacture, exports etc.

The product will be launched in the BRIC countries, she said and later taken to other markets. Avesthagen had tied-up with Cipla in May 2004 to develop products in the auto-immune, cancer and cardio-vascular space. The collaboration was to come up with its first product in three years.

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