Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd has made a foray into the lucrative French generics market with the launch of 43 generics there.
Being launched through Zydus France SAS, the French subsidiary of the company, the generics offered are in the key segments of cardio-vasculars, central nervous system, gastrointestinals, pain management, type II diabetes and anti-infectives.
As part of its strategy to aggressively tap the European generics markets, Zydus will add another 20 generic products by December to the 43 that have been launched already. By 2006, Zydus aims to launch another 25 products in the French market that will go off patent.
The estimated value of generics in the six key segments is pegged at 600 million euro and Zydus aims at a one per cent to three per cent share in all the six categories in the next two years or so. This means that Zydus aims at sales of around 18 million euro from generics in the French market by 2006.
In the first phase, Zydus France aims to involve a minimum of 10,000 pharmacists in a broad-based outreach programme that will include information about patients and the likes.
The company's branding strategy will focus on moving beyond cost benefit and address health concerns by involving pharmacists and patients, said a company statement on Thursday.
Zydus Cadila Healthcare entered the French market with the acquisition of Alpharma France in 2003.
The company, with its ready distribution network and a pipeline of 109 generics registrations, has been a lucrative platform for Zydus' entry into the French generics market, which is today estimated to be $1.25 billion and growing at a rate of 30 per cent per annum.
Zydus Cadila signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent stake in Alpharma SAS France from its promoters Alpharma. The acquisition valued at 5.50 million euro, was made through Zydus International Pvt Ltd, an overseas wholly owned subsidiary of Zydus Cadila.
