Torrent in pact with Chinese firm to market cardio pill

Torrent Pharma on Wednesday announced that it has entered into an agreement with Tasly, one of China's largest pharma companies, to exclusively market their blockbuster drug, Cardio-tonic pill, in India.

Cardio-tonic is sold globally in 13 countries, including the US. The US FDA-approved drug has sales of $ 360 million globally with $ 30 million in US alone, besides being the highest selling single medicine in China, with sales of over $160 million.

Torrent Pharma, a Rs 1,033-crore Ahmedabad-based pharma major, believes it has a potential blockbuster on its hands and expects to prop its topline with sales of around 20 crore within the next two years of its launch.

Cardio-tonic is a novel oral droplet formulation based on the traditional Chinese medicine theory used for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases like coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes and hypertension. It is made from a unique combination of pure extracts of three Chinese medicinal herbs "" radix salviae miltiorrhizae, radix notoginseng and bormel.

The innovative droplet pill formulation offers many clinical advantages such as low dosage, rapid and complete absorption, fast onset of action, high potency with few side effects, and convenience, according to a company release.

The company hopes Cardio-tonic will be positioned as a single add-on solution in cardiovascular disorders for all cardiologists, diabetologists and consultant physicians.

According to Torrent, the in-licensing deal is the first-of-its-kind in India in the traditional medicine segment. Torrent Pharma will be exploring more such exclusive avenues in the medium to long-term wherein the company gets the sole license to market such products.

Cardio-tonic pill is just one of the many potentially blockbuster products in the portfolio of OMEGA, Torrent's new specialty division that focuses on the cardio-metabolic diseases, with exclusive focus on cardiology, diabetes and nephrology.

The deal comes at a time when India is poised to become the country with the largest number of patients suffering from cardio-vascular diseases.

According to World Health Organisation, India will have 57 million diabetics by 2025 and the prevalence of other associated diseases is going to increase in similar fashion. Currently, 7 per cent of Indians suffer from various cardio-vascular diseases, 4 per cent are diabetics and 7 per cent are hypertensives.