GSK eyes brand buys, new rollouts

FROM THE PHARMA FRONT: THIS PILL IS NOT BITTER

GlaxoSmithKline India is eyeing brand acquisitions to spruce up its portfolio, besides lining drug and vaccine launches in a bid to reclaim its number one spot in the domestic market.

The company is also in talks with two domestic companies for a marketing alliance and commercialising their products through its strong distribution network.

GSK India, which had for years had the highest market share in the Rs 35,000 crore domestic pharmaceuticals market, was recently relegated to the second slot by Ranbaxy Labs for consecutive months, June and July, this year.

"GSK has products in the pipeline, so I'm not perturbed over market share rankings of two months. Moreover, if one were to include vaccines and hospital products, we have a share of over 6.5 per cent and that puts us at the top spot again", said managing director, S Kalyansundaram.

Quiz Kalyansundaram if GSK too is looking at acquiring Indian companies, in the wake of Mylan-Matrix deal and he says : "We will not acquire for size but we can look at acquiring 'brands' in the chronic segment of cardiovascular, diabetes, central nervous system, obesity etc. Valuation permitting, we will like to buy brands while being open to the seller company manufacturing drugs."

The Indian subsidiary of UK-based GlaxoSmithKline, which has a turnover of about Rs 1,700 crore from its pharma business alone, is gunning to be a $1 billion (or Rs 4,600 crore) company in a decade.

The company was also in discussions with a couple of Indian companies for supply agreements in therapeutic segments of cardiovascular along with a clinical co-development alliance in asthma, added Kalyansundaram. In-licensing in the research sphere on commercially promising products was also a possibility but that would happen at the behest of GSK international.

The pharma player has lined up three vaccines indicated for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), one each for Rotavirus, cervical cancer and pneumonia, for launch in the next three years. It is also bringing its cancer drug Lepatinib to India which is currently undergoing clinical trials globally.

While GSK isn't planning brick-and-mortar investment in India, in terms of constructing manufacturing sites, it is shifting a lot of service-based activities to India such as clinical trials, contract manufacturing and clinical data management, explained Kalyansundaram.