Eli Lilly seeks to reduce time lag in launches

Eli Lilly India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of US based Eli Lilly & Company (ELC), has set the target to reduce the time gap between drug launched by the company in India and in other parts of the world.

"Keeping in mind India's every-increasing contribution to clinical trial segment of the global pharma industry, it is important to cut down the time lag in drug launches between India and other parts of the world. Presently, the gap between a drug launch in India and USA is about one year, and we intend to bring this down to zero," said chairman and managing director Rajiv Gulati in an exclusive interview to Business Standard.

He added that the company would prefer collaborative work with Indian companies. "Our business model prefers collaborative activity with Indian organisation, be it clinical trial, clinical research or discovery research. We are in negotiations with more than two dozen Indian biotech companies for collaboration. Our global research division, Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) has visited twice and we might shortly begin activities," he added.

He further clarified that the company does not have any immediate manufacturing unit in the country.