Its destination Europe for Gujarat's pharma majors

After Latin America, European countries have become the hot destination for Gujarat-based pharmaceutical majors and all efforts are being made to make their presence felt in this market.

While the Rs 1,100 crore Zydus Cadila Healthcare is adding manpower to exclusively handle its future European operations, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd (TPL) is adopting the subsidiary model.

Cadila Pharmaceutical Ltd (CPL) is trying to acquire approvals for more drugs from the regulatory bodies in Europe, while JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (JBCPL) has recently tied up with an European major. Also, Intas Pharma is negotiating for 25 molecules in Europe.

"We have appointed David Blanksby as our vice-president for Europe who earlier held key positions with Glaxo, UK, and Ivax Inc, UK, one of the top three generic companies. Blanksby will head our company's future European operations from his base in the UK. Our goal is to tap the opportunities for growth in the European market by establishing ourselves in France, Germany, UK and Italy and Spain. The recent acquisition of Alpharma France takes us closer to this goal," said Pankaj R Patel, chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila.

A couple of months back Zydus Cadila acquired Alpharma, the French affiliate of one of the world's largest generic companies Alpharma. The new entity has been now named Zydus France SAS.

While Zydus has decided to stress on the markets in France and Germany, Torrent Pharma has initiated its operations in Germany with a subsidiary called Torrent Pharma GmbH. "Looking at the opportunities in the Pan-European markets for generics and Torrent's research and development capabilities, the company expects to reap rich dividends in this market in the future. The company has already invested 155,000 as capital contribution in Torrent Pharma GmbH," said a company source. Torrent's business model for the European market is to strike alliances and partnerships with large players for select molecules by providing them with product registration dossiers.

The company is also looking at striking long-term supply contracts for both active pharmaceutical ingredients and for finished formulations. Torrent is at present looking for creating more subsidiaries in the European market for making its stronger and it has been reliably learnt that the company is in negotiations with a few European pharma majors.

The Bharuch-based JBCPL, which has been known as one of the strong players in the over-the-counter (OTC) segment in Russia and CIS countries, is now looking for a base in the UK from where the company will spread its network in other European countries.

Kamlesh Udhani, executive director of JBCPL, said, "We have just tied up with a UK-based pharmaceutical company. Following this, we are working out the strategy for entering this $6 billion market. We have also submitted our applications with the Medicine Control Agency (MCA) in the UK, which is like the USFDA. Once we get approvals from the MCA, it will be easier for us to operate in not only UK but also any other countries under EU." JBCPL is looking first for claiming a stake in UK's pharma market following which it will eye other countries in the European Union.

Intas Pharma has a clear focus on contract manufacturing for leading European generic firms. "We have started with the UK market where we are at present working with almost 10 generic companies with another half-a-dozen companies under negotiation for more than 25 molecules. Having succeeded in the UK, Intas now has started exploring the possibilities in other potential markets of Western Europe. This has enabled Intas to reach and handle several generic companies of Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden," said M N Bhattacharya, senior vice-president (international marketing) of Intas.

Intas is now looking for opportunities in other European countries as well.

CPL, which has got regulatory approvals for marketing both bulk drugs and formulations in the EU, at present is working out its strategy and business model.