Indian distribution muscle big draw

If India's R&D strength and low-cost manufacturing capabilities are the main attractions for global pharmaceutical leaders to look East for collaborations, it is the distribution strength of domestic players that is attracting the small drug makers of Europe and America to India.

Product-specific marketing collaborations are on the rise with almost all major Indian drug firms selling imported niche medicines on behalf of their foreign counterparts in the country.

For instance, Canadian probiotic firm Lallemand has just signed a co-marketing deal with India's leading drug maker Ranbaxy for one of their products targetting irritable bowel syndrome. The same product will also be marketed through Aristo, another Indian maker.

Another probiotic firm, this time a European firm VSL, is in the process of announcing similar arrangements with leading domestic drug firms, says K S Chadha, Asia-Pacific head of VSL.

Incidentally, both the companies share the same reason for identifying Indian partners for their product launches. "Indian probiotic market is seeing an explosive growth and many pharmaceutical companies are jumping into the market," Ulrich Irgens, business director, Asia, Lallemand, says.

It's not just probiotics. Biotechnology products and medical or diagnostic equipment are also finding way to Indian market through the same route.

Elder Pharmaceuticals, in an announcement made last week, said that company has entered into a licensing agreement with an Italy-based research-oriented biotech company "� Gnosis SpA "� for marketing and distribution of an anti-arthritic product "� S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine Disulphate p-Toluensulfonate (SAMe) "� in India.