Torrent Pharmaceuticals, the Ahmedabad-based pharma major, plans to launch 35-40 drugs in Brazil in the next two years. Around 50 per cent of the $17-billion Brazilian pharmaceuticals market is generics.
Currently, Torrent has a market share of seven per cent in Brazil, which amounts to 17 per cent of its total sales. It has 27 products in this market with the top 10 constituting 70 per cent of its sales. These premier products enjoy 15-25 per cent market share in their category.
Among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), Brazil has the highest per capita expenditure on medicines ($690) against Russia ($613) and India ($50).
Ravi Agarwal, analyst at Standard Chartered, wrote in the recent pharma report, “An interesting opportunity for the company could be the launch of a combination product (metformin+Glimiperide) in Brazil in 2011-12, with an addressable market size of $100 million. Unlike other emerging markets such as India, combination products in Brazil require separate bio-equivalence tests and, hence, have fewer competitors. We estimate sales of $4 million and $10 million in 2012-13 from this product.”
A Torrent spokesperson refused to respond to queries on the development.
Other Indian players active in Brazil include Glenmark, Cadila and Ranbaxy. However, Glenmark, which achieved Latin American sales revenue of $47 million (10 per cent of total revenue) in 2007-08, witnessed a decline of 22 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) at $29 million (five per cent of the total revenue) in 2009-10. Cadila has Brazilian sales of $30 million (three per cent of the revenue) and Ranbaxy has sales of $55 million (two per cent of revenue) in Brazil for 2009-10.
Manoj Garg, vice-president, Edelweiss Securities, said, “The growth potential in emerging markets is higher than that of developed markets at present. The government initiative to reduce healthcare costs brings more scope for branded generic and generic players in Brazil, where these areas grow at 14-15 per cent.”
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Apart from Brazil, Torrent is strengthening presence in Mexico, the second-largest branded generic market in Latin America with a market size of $9 billion. Torrent which has already launched six products in 2010-11 plans to launch 30 products in the next four years.
“Torrent, with its strong execution track in Brazil, has the right skill sets to execute its business plans in Mexico, given many similarities between both the markets. Torrent plans to invest $5-6 million per year for the next few years and launch at least five-six products each year,” the Standard Chartered report said.