With 40 million diabetic patients and an equal number of people estimated to be diabetic prone, India is emerging as a major market for blood glucose monitoring solutions.
In another setback to Big Pharma, US drug major Eli Lilly's blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug Cialis (generic name:Tadalafil) has failed to qualify for a product patent in India after the basic constituent of the medicine was found to be a known substance, developed and patented by Indian scientists 32 years ago.
Interestingly, the European Patent Office is yet to grant a patent for Maraviroc, citing insufficient data, sources said. These were the main reasons cited by the Indian Patent Office for rejecting the patent for the cancer drug Gleevec, which snowballed into a global patent battle between the Swiss drug major Novartis and the Indian government.
Suzlon Energy, one of the top five wind energy manufacturers in the world, plans to raise $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route to fund its expansion plans.
The drug regulatory agencies of India and Canada are planning to collaborate on improving the quality of drugs traded between the two countries, besides helping the industry in both the countries to tap the opportunities in the field of generic medicines and drug development.
The Indian pharmaceutical companies are involved in patent litigations of a mere 40 drugs, out of the 135 known patent litigation drugs in the US. This is despite the claims by major Indian players such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's at having secured over 20 first to file status abbreviated new drug applications with the US Food and Drug Administration.
The company is demerging its new chemical entity research unit into a separate company to meet the demands of increased spend on research and development, and to insulate investors from the risks involved. According to the deal signed with Merck, NPIL will discover and develop new drugs for two selected targets provided by Merck in the area of cancer.
Generic drug sales in the US, that power the business of such leading Indian drug manufacturers as Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Zydus Cadila, will face competition soon, as big US wholesalers decide to outsource their requirements from upcoming Indian manufacturers.
NPIL had announced that it would team up with the French company to develop a drug for the epidemic about six months ago, following the spread of the disease, mainly in southern India and Maharashtra in the last two years. Currently, drugs are not available to effectively treat the disease and doctors in the country administer viral disease drugs such as paracetamol and other anti-biotics to check the infection.
India's largest biotechnology company Biocon is planning to tap the potential of biosimilars (generics or copycat versions of biotech drugs going off patent) in the regulated markets of the US and Europe, besides taking Insugen, its own version of insulin, to the global markets in a big way.
India is the fourth largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products in the world and the 12th largest in value terms. India could emerge as the second largest producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), next to China, within two to five years, overtaking Italy, according to various estimates.
ONGC Videsh (OVL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is eyeing more gas fields in Libya.
Rohm and Haas, one of the largest speciality material manufacturers in the world, plans to invest $100 million (about Rs 410 crore) in India to develop manufacturing and research and development facilities.
According to senior RIL executives, more than half the work has been completed on the pipeline, which will transport gas from the KG basin to the RIL refinery at Jamnagar.
A study by a Swedish University has accused India's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturers of causing alarming levels of environmental pollution and threatening the region's flora and fauna.
Even as some major global pharmaceutical majors like Novartis say India's patent laws are weak and a hurdle to their investment plans for the country
If a science graduate or a B Pharma degree was the minimum requirement for the job of medical representative some years ago, acute manpower crisis and inability to penetrate rural areas have forced the phramaceutical industry
Besides Novartis, the other companies are Roche, J&J, Glaxo and Astrazeneca.
P B Jayakumar caught up Dr Reddy's chairman K Anji Reddy and tried to balance science and religion. And yes, there is also the question of choosing between the son and the son-in-law.
Mumbai-based pharma major Lupin will invest over Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) this year to create additional manufacturing capacities.
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