Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories have expanded an existing partnership by adding one more new drug in their co-marketing arrangement.
Cipla director Amar Lulla said the anti-depressant venlafaxine will be the latest drug to be jointly marketed by the two companies. As per the agreement, Ranbaxy will source the drug from Cipla for its brand, Lulla said.
Last February, the companies had entered in a co-marketing deal for the promotion of three drugs -- cardiovascular product carvedilol, cholesterol drug atorvastatin and anti-infective cefpodoxime.
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According to analysts, the Cipla-Ranbaxy co-marketing alliance, appears to have made significant headway. They said the anti-depressant market is a tough one in India and a co-marketing deal will help both companies make inroads into it more easily.
Under the new deal, Ranbaxy and Cipla market the same products under their own brand names with a view to increasing the size of the market for the molecules involved. In each of the four products, one of the two companies manufactures the drug and the other sources from it.
Ranbaxy launched its brand of venlafaxine at the beginning of October and Cipla will be launching its brand later this month.
The annual sales for the Ranbaxy brands being sold under the arrangement -- Caslot, Storvas and Cipodem -- were Rs 18.5 crore for the 12 months to August 2000. Cipla's sales of its corresponding brands Carloc, Atorlip and Cefoprox were Rs 5.4 crore in the same period.
Analysts pointed out that several Indian companies have entered into such alliances over the past two years. Ranbaxy has similar deals for other products with Hoechst Marion Roussel (India) and Glaxo (India).
Hoechst Marion also collaborates with Nicholas Piramal India for another range of products. Last month Kopran Ltd also signed a co-marketing deal with E-Merck for the promotion of an anti-cholesterol drug.