Sun to invest $70 million in R&D

The Mumbai-based drug firm Sun Pharma is planning to hive off its research operations into a separate entity with an overall investment of $60-70 million in the next three years. The new research entity, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (Sparc), will invest $60-70 million to support research operations over the next three years, Sun Pharma Chairman and Managing Director Dilip Sanghvi said.

Sun Pharma will initially pump in $45 million in the new company, while the remaining sum will be met through internal accruals of Sparc once it starts generating revenues, a company official said.

The company is awaiting regulatory approvals to demerge research operations and the existing shareholders of Sun Pharma will get a split issue in the new research entity.

Sparc is presently working on four new chemical entities (NCE) and products based on four novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). The research firm is working on developing various products, including an epilepsy drug gabapentin, Sanghvi said during a conference call to announce its research initiatives.The company expects to file the New Drug application for the epilepsy medicine in the US during the second quarter of 2008, he added.

The research entity is also working on a muscle relaxant and dry powder inhaler (DPI) for asthma patients. The DPI would be rolled out in unregulated and semi-regulated market first. It would be filed as a new drug application in regulated markets in 2011.

Other drug delivery systems being developed include gastro-retentive systems for products not absorbed in the colon and lower intestine, besides biodegradable injectibles.

The company's new molecule, SUN 1334 H, an anti-allergic, is currently undergoing phase II clinical trials in the US.

"In pre-clinical studies, Sun 1334H was found to have high specificity for H1 receptors, and this indicates a low side effect profile," the company said.