Post-Toroxx ban, Torrent to bank on alternative brands

Like its peers in the pharma industry, the worldwide withdrawal of rofecoxib, a popular pain reliever pill, has hit the bottomline of the Rs 516 crore Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd (TPL). Torrent's brand, Toroxx also had to be removed from the shelves after the withdrawal by the innovator.

However, the officials of the Ahmedabad-based pharma major said that in the coming months Torrent would be able to shake off the trouble with the aggressive marketing of other brands in the pain management and anti-arthritis segments.

Torrent reported a 65 percent dip in its net profit at Rs 3.3 crore in the fourth quarter of the 2004-05. The company would bank on its generics in the European market during the current financial year to come out from the damages caused to the company in the domestic market during the quarter ended March, 2005.

TPL is also planning to enter into the US market during this financial year in a big way with its product basket of formulations.

Sources also indicated that the success in the European generic market might also prompt the company to enter the US generics market later this year or in the first half of the next financial year.

"One of the major reasons contributing to the drop in PAT during the fourth quarter of the last financial year was the withdrawal of Torrent's high performing cox-2 inhibitor Toroxx, following a worldwide withdrawal by the innovator. However, now we have few other brands such as Valz in this category," said a company spokesperson here on Monday.

During second half of 2004, the government decided to ban sales of the particular generic version of Vioxx, invented by Merck, on the National Pharmacovigilance Advisory Committee (NPAC)'s recommendation to the Health Ministry against usage of the drug.

Toroxx was mainly used for the management of acute and chronic pain and inflammation and it was launched by Torrent in 2000 along with Unichem Laboratories' Roff. Ranbaxy has also withdrawn the product from the market following the health ministry's advises.

Despite a dipping net profit and a drop in domestic sales, Torrent did well in the overseas market. Consolidated exports grew at 95 per cent to Rs 45.88 crore during the quarter under consideration, compared with Rs 23.51 crore posted during the corresponding period of the previous year.

"We have earned revenues worth Rs 15 crore alone from the European market selling generics during the quarter. The combined sales from Germany, the United Kingdom and Malta earned us Rs 12 crore, while Romania, Poland and Czech Republic have brought us Rs 3 crore. This we hope will increase significantly," the spokesperson said. Torrent Pharmaceuticals GmbH handles the European generic market.

"We expect our new facility at Buddi in Himachal Pradesh, with a manufacturing capacity of 36000 million tablets and capsules per year, to be commissioned during the third quarter of the current fiscal year. After this the domestic market of formulations would also rise significantly," added the spokesperson.

The strict implementation of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, meant that its high-selling drug Alprex, an anti-depressant, faced almost zero.

"The chemists refused to sell Alprex following stricter vigilance from the government agencies. These agencies also kept asking for too much of documentation processes required from the chemists for selling Alprex and that affected us in the fourth quarter."

"Since April, however, sales of Aplrex have come back to normalcy and we hope to do better during the current quarter with the crisis period over now," said the spokesperson.