DRL to focus on biosimilars

Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) will focus on development of biosimilars, the generic versions of original biotech drugs, and development of new chemical entities(NCEs) in future, rather than concentrating on copycat versions of existing drugs, which helped the company to become an over $1 billion entity since inception in 1984.

"Our vision is to make Dr Reddy's as a research driven drug discovery company in the future. Within the next five to ten years, one-third of the revenues will come from outlicensing and sales of new drugs, another one-third from biosimilars, and rest from the current ongoing businesses. We are not looking at any specific numbers," K Anji Reddy, chairman, Dr Reddy's, told Business Standard.

He noted that price erosion to the tune of 98 per cent, entry of numerous players and the ploy of innovator companies to launch authorised generics have now made generic business of pharmaceutical formulations a not-so-profitable proposition. As against this, many biotech drugs are going off-patent in the near future and generic competition is likely to be limited to not more than three to five players for each of the drugs. Price erosion factor is also likely to be less, in the region of a maximum 50 per cent, he noted.

"However, this does not mean that we will progressively exit from generics business as Dr Reddy's has created a big portfolio of generic products in the global market," he added.

He said Dr Reddy's, which launched for the first time in the world 'Reditux' - the generic version of rituximab is a monoclonal antibody (MAb) used in the treatment of a severe form of cancer called Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, plans to launch six more such biosmilars in the near future.

Dr Reddy's is also the first Indian company to develop a generic version of filgrastim (Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor - hG-CSF), indicated for chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (situation where the number of neutrophils in the blood is too low) and in bone marrow transplantation. Reddy's is marketing the drug under the brand name 'Grafeel' in many countries.

Commenting on the new drugs in the pipeline, he said about eight drugs are in various clinical stages. Dr Reddy's plans to make at least one drug into commercialisation stage, every year in the near future. He revealed that apart from this, Dr Reddy's has about five drugs in the pre-clinical stages, which includes many exciting patented leads for new drugs and disease targets developed by its R&D teams at Atlanta and Hyderabad.

Balaglitazone, the type II diabetes drug, which entered into Phase III clinical trials recently can be commercialised by 2011, he hoped.

Dr Reddy's will partner with multinational pharmaceutical companies for commercialisation in the US and other geographies where Dr Reddy's has commercialisation rights. The drug offers an opportunity of $6 billion, as the existing two drugs in the same class, Avendia and Actos, will lose patent protection by that time, he noted.