Torrent launches antidepressant 'Symbal'

Ahmedabad-based, Rs 513 crore Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd (TPL) has launched Duloxetine, a new generation anti-depressant for the first time in India.

The new product is named Symbal. It is first in a new class of anti-depressants known as Selective Serotonin Norepinephrine Re-uptake Inhibitor (SSNRIs), that ensure rapid and sustained efficacy in the treatment of both emotional and physical treatment of depression.

The Rs 250 crore antidepressant market, which is a quarter of the neuropsychiatric medication sales in India, is growing at a rate of 11 per cent. Torrent is aiming to clock a sales turnover of Rs 5 crore from Symbal within first year of its launch, a company statement said.

The anti-depressants available in the market addresses only the emotional aspects of depression. Symbal promises treatment of physical symptoms that accompany major depressive disorder (MDD) such as aches, pains, and gastrointestinal disturbance as well. Symbal also possesses a safety profile as per Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor (SSRI) medications.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, depression will become the second-largest cause of global health burden by 2020. Depression being one of the most common mental disorders and among the largest segments in the field of neuropsychiatry, yet remains one of the most under diagnosed conditions.

WHO says that 181 out of 1,000 Indians suffer from one or the other mental disorders. In India, 110 million patients suffer from depression, 50 million from epilepsy, 25 million from schizophrenia, 37 million from dementia.

In India, it is estimated that by 2007, depression would be the second largest disorder after cardiac ailments. Depressive illness causes 20 per cent of the suicides in the country and is responsible for a third of the alcoholics taking to drink. It is also the fourth to the tenth most frequent diagnosis made by family doctors.

"With the launch of Symbal, the company, which has made pioneering efforts in therapeutic segment of CNS, reiterates its efforts to bring the latest and the safest therapies for the benefit of Indian medical fraternity and the patients in particular," mentioned the TPL communique.