RPG Life Sciences Ltd, the pharmaceuticals arm of the Rs 20,000-crore RPG Group, is set to expand its footprints worldwide by entering into territories like Africa and Europe. The company is eyeing more revenues by expanding active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, and formulation businesses into the new markets.
The formulations business of RPG Life had a sales revenue of Rs 117 crore for financial year 2010-11, 17 per cent growth over the previous year. The global generics business contributed a mere Rs 17 crore to the total revenue. However, the company expects to increase revenues through new agreements which have been executed with customers in Germany and other EU markets for Azathioprine tablets.
RPG has a short-term plan of registering products in new geographies with minimal requirements such as Mozambique, Zambia and Hong Kong. While the company is exploring strategic partnerships for presence in African and Latin American countries, it eyes highly compliant markets such as Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia with a long-term strategy.
“In Europe, we are entering a new geography through tie-ups with new customers. For markets in rest of the world, we have a good portfolio of products & Africa is a good growing market. We are, therefore, registering our products across the African markets. Both are really growth strategies through the current product portfolio and future new products that are being planned for launch,” Managing Director Ajit Singh Chouhan said.
The bulk drug business achieved a sales revenue of Rs 29 crore, 44 per cent growth over the previous year, mainly from the sales of Nicorandil (cardiovascular) and Clopidogrel (blood thinning drug ingredient).
The patent expiry of Plavix, the $7-billion blood thinning drug which has Clopidogrel as the main ingredient, will help RPG to reap a windfall. Azathioprine has a global market size of $169 million and Germany tops the list with sales of $36 million.
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RPG Life has signed pacts with European players like Stada and Medac to sell bulk drugs in Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. It has already signed a business agreement with Poland-based Polpharma to sell each other’s APIs. Under the agreement, Polpharma would sell Clopidogrel in Poland and other markets in Europe.
The company’s presence in the EU and Australia will be strengthened after Azathioprine gets marketing approval, which is expected by the end of 2011-12.
RPG Life recently launched divisions for chronic segments namely cardiology and diabetic (IMPULSE), neurology and psychiatry (EMPATHY) and oncology (Neo-life). Another division, ESSENTIA, was also launched to cater to the hospital sales segment. About 36 products were launched in FY11 across the divisions. The company is expected to launch 50 more products in next three years.
“The launches will augment the product portfolios of various business verticals and also enable the company to tap growing market segments both in the domestic as well as export markets,” Chouhan said.
RPG Life has kept a capital outlay of Rs 70 for the current financial year.