Lupin sells hypertension drug patent for Rs 115 cr

The Mumbai based pharmaceutical company, Lupin said it has received euro 20 million (over Rs 115 crore) from Laboratories Servier of France towards the sale of certain patent applications and other related intellectual property for the generic version of high blood pressure drug, Perindopril to multiple countries.

"The income from this sale significantly boosts our performance for the previous quarter. It obviously goes a long way to demonstrate our research and IP capabilities," said Kamal Sharma, Managing Director, Lupin.

Sources said that although perindopril, as a chemical entity, came off patent in June 2003, its generic versions are rare in the global markets. Perindopril, marketed as Coversyl tablets by Servier, is a new class of cardiovascular drugs such as Ramipril and Lisinopril. Servier has taken four different "process patents related to the processes used to synthesize perindopril and its key intermediates".

These patents effectively prevent any generic version from being available in the regulated markets such as Europe and US until 2008 at the earliest. The drug also costs 2-4 times as much as lisinopril or ramipril for equivalent doses.

Servier is the largest independent French pharmaceutical company with a turnover of over 2.8 billion Euros in 2004-2005. About 73 per cent of the company's turnover is contributed by drugs for cardiovascular and veneous diseases. Coversyl is the lead brand which contributes about 31 per cent of its turnover.