Sanofi-aventis has a significant presence in India and has 1,800 employees.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Monday said its subsidiary Glenmark Pharmaceuticals SA has granted licence to Sanofi-aventis for developing drugs to treat chronic pain, for an initial payment of $20 million (about Rs 89 crore).
Sanofi-aventis on Monday said it has extended its $18.5 billion offer for Genzyme for the second time, a move that will give the French drug-maker additional time to reach an agreement with US biotechnology firm.
Aventis Pharma, the Indian arm of sanofi-aventis, the world's third largest drug company, is planning to ramp up its domestic operations with acquisition of brands and make India a major hub for its research and development and manufacturing activities. At present, sanofi-aventis has two large manufacturing facilities, one at Ankleswar for active pharmaceutical ingredients and the other in Goa for making tablets.
The ministry has asked 44 pharmaceutical companies, including global drug majors such as Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Bayer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi Aventis, to explain why they have not given the compensation, which is mandatory under the current drug laws.
Daiichi Sankyo had entered into a licensing agreement with Sanofi-Aventis in 1993 for marketing levofloxacin (Tavanic) in Europe, Africa, South America and in some countries in Asia. Sanofi-Aventis is currently selling the drug in more than 90 countries under the brand 'Tavanic'.
The initiative will include special training for Customs and drug regulatory officials to identify spurious drugs, their origin, distribution chain and follow-up action to raid premises and book culprits, in coordination with regulatory and police officials of various countries.
The medicines whose prices have been reduced belong to therapeutic categories, like dexametozone, betamethazone, ampicillin and ranitidine. The prices of some multi-vitamins and antibiotics would rise a bit.
The patent relates to the manufacturing process for the active ingredient in Sanofi-Aventis' Allegra and Allegra-D drug products. Both Dr Reddys and Sandoz are known to be marketing these products in the US.
Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Sun Pharma's US subsidiary Caraco Pharmaceuticals are among the 13 generic manufacturers to get first generic approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market generic versi
Dr Reddy's Laboratories received a major setback in the US, as a court there granted a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to block the launch of its generic version of Sanofi-Aventis' anti-allergic drug, Allegra D24.
Despite the best efforts of Indian vaccine makers to develop the H1N1(swine flu) vaccine, Swiss drug major Novartis and Australian vaccine maker CSL may be the first ones to bag the orders from the central government for its supply.
Eli Lily, Sanofi Aventis, Bristol Myers approach chemicals ministry.
Hyderabad based Dr Reddy's Laboratories has received approval from the US Food and Drugs Administration for multiple strengths of anti-diabetes drug glimepiride tablets.
FDI in drugs and pharmaceuticals was $487 million during April-August 2012, according to the latest data of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
According to assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, corporates in the country announced 458 deals in the January-November period amounting to $26.76 billion.
FDI in brownfield investment has resulted in acquisition of domestic drug-manufacturing firms by multinational companies.
Vodafone's long-pending tax dispute with the government might be heading for a resolution, with the finance ministry considering changing the Income-Tax Act's retrospective amendment and taxing indirect transfer of assets prospectively from 2012, the year the law was clarified.
Investors must carefully watch the developments on the MNC pipeline.
Things appear to be going from bad to worse for Vijay Mallya, once known as 'King of Good Times', with the board of a company he nurtured into India's largest liquor maker asking him to quit.
Bharat Biotech started work on developing a vaccine against Zika way back in 2014.