It’s been exactly 18 months since Maturin Tchoumi took over as the head of Roche India and his mission is to be a “more relevant player” locally, with more products and partnerships.

In fact, the Basel-headquartered drugmaker is preparing to introduce its advanced breast cancer drugs Kadcyla and Perjeta next week to doctors in the country. The regulatory approvals and import of products is done and the medicine has been made available at the retail level, Tchoumi told BusinessLine .

October is breast cancer month and Roche’s other breakthrough breast cancer drug Herceptin has not had an easy journey in India, embattled with patent issues, generic competition and the possibility of a compulsory licence (CL) hovering over the drug.

Biological drug trastuzumab (sold under brandname Herceptin) was on the Government’s radar for a CL, a provision under the amended Patents Act that would allow a third party to maker a similar, less expensive version of the drug by paying a royalty to the innovator.

Pricing issue But these incidents have not derailed Roche’s plans for India, says Tchoumi, adding that they are committed to bring in products “as quickly as possible.”

The patent environment is evolving and that should not be a reason for not bringing good quality products to India, he said, responding to the above issues witnessed in India.

With oncology, or cancer, medicines being a key part of Roche’s portfolio, he says, the pricing will be India-specific. There will be differential pricing for Kadcyla and Perjeta, he indicated. “We believe that there are other barriers to access like diagnostics, awareness …but we don’t dispute the fact that price is an issue. And consider that there are different needs in different countries. Globally we have been given enough latitude on differential pricing,” he said.

While multinationals like GlaxoSmithKline and Merck have in the past adopted differential pricing and brought in drugs at about 25 per cent or less of the price in developed markets, Roche officials said it was “difficult” to provide a similar price indication.

Simpson Emmanuel, Roche’s Director – Market Access, added that the price would vary for the different patients, and the company was looking to build in levels of patient support.

Partnerships

On increasing partnerships in India, Tchoumi said that they were looking at “Make in India, in a way no one else has.” Earlier this year, Roche had entered into a licensing agreement with Curadev, Delhi-based company, looking to develop small molecules in cancer immunotherapy. It is a $500-million deal and an upfront payment of $25 million has been made in this early drug discovery company, he said.

Roche has an existing partnership with Emcure on cancer products, including Herceptin, and with Hetero on swine-flu drug Tamiflu.

The rationale is to partner with companies that have an edge in a market that Roche may not possess, so together they can cater to a wider landscape of patients, he explained.

Refraining from commenting on Roche’s legal spat over trastuzumab with generic players Biocon and Mylan, Tchoumi pointed out, “Competition is a constant in our business…. What we look for is an environment where there’s transparency… on when, where and why (a product is evaluated and comes to market...).”

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