Global pharma firms take a tropical dose

Multinationals focus on diseases in developing countries as they lose protection by patents at home.

The big multinational drug makers are increasingly focusing their research on diseases that no longer afflict their home countries.

As more and more drugs lose patent protection, their research pipelines have become full of potential cures for tropical diseases, which ail developing countries including India.

As many as nine "� Novartis, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Otsuka, GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, J&J and Crucell - are developing medicine for tuberculosis, which claims two million lives every year. At least seven are focusing on malaria, another killer.

Bayer and Sanofi are pursuing research on African trypansomiasis (Sleeping sickness). GSK is into Leishmaniasis (Kala Azar) research. Dengue and Onchocerciasis (river blindness) are other favourites.

Novartis, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and GSK have set up research facilities and programmes dedicated to tropical diseases.

"Global pharmaceutical companies are acutely aware of the need for newer medicines to treat the diseases of the developing world and have some of their sharpest talent working on research in these areas," said Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India Ltd.

Earlier, Big Pharma put in little investment in drugs for these diseases, as there was the much bigger market to be addressed in the developed world, which grapples more with problems related to cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.

However, many blockbuster drugs that treated patients in the developed markets are losing the protection provided by patents, resulting in a rush of generic makers and sharp fall in prices.

New markets
According to a recent KPMG study, drugs worth $65-70 billion are expected to go off-patent in five years while there are very few new drugs that can generate similar revenues. The price erosion for drugs going off-patent is almost 90 per cent in key markets like the United States.

On the other hand, developing countries like India offer a growing market and an open field for introduction of new medicines for illnesses that kill millions of people every year.

"Emerging economies like India and Indonesia are markets with huge sales potential. For MNCs, whose R&D has stagnated globally, these regions offer huge opportunities. Discovering medicines for neglected diseases makes business sense," Sujay Shetty, PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed out.

In fact, according to discovery pipelines, the multinationals appear to be far ahead of their Indian counterparts in researching medicines for diseases neglected so far.

For instance, Lupin is the only Indian company focusing on developing a tuberculosis drug, while Ranbaxy alone is targeting malaria.

Wrong perception
"There is the wrong perception that the R&D efforts of multinational corporations do not focus on diseases primarily affecting the developing world," said Shahani.

"Novartis set up the Institute for Tropical Diseases as a public-private partnership in Singapore in 2002 precisely for this purpose and any new drug that comes out of research done there will be sold on a not-for-profit basis. NITD now has more than 100 researchers and support staff on site."

According to the KPMG study, the prospects of healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry are closely linked to economic growth.

"There is a view that if the GDP of a country grows by one per cent, its pharma industry grows by approximately two per cent. If you are going to have 8-10 per cent growth in the GDP, the pharma industry will grow in double digits," Brian Tempest, chief mentor, Ranbaxy, says in the study.