Elder ties up with Japanese firm for lifestyle drugs foray

Elder Pharmaceuticals has entered into an in-licensing pact with Tanabe Seiyaku, one of the biggest Japanese pharma firm.

Through this deal, Elder has introduced Imidapril, a globally successful anti-hypertensive drug from Tanabe stable. The move also marks Elder' foray into the Rs 3,000 crore lifestyle drugs segment in the country.

Elder expects to generate a turnover of Rs 20-22 crore from this drug at the end of the third year from its launch.

Alok Saxena, director (international), Elder Pharmaceuticals, says, "Since we are not into molecule research in a big way, we do the next best thing ""getting globally researched products into India through in-licensing. Elder plans to fortify its presence by launching 15 new drugs in the next 2 years."

Lifestyle drugs segment is worth Rs 3,000 crore and it is growing at a clip of over 15 per cent per annum. Following the therapeutic segment of anti-infectives (16 per cent of the total pharma market) and gastro-intestinal drugs (11 per cent), lifestyle drugs have a market share of 9.3 per cent in the country's total pharma market.

The existing players in the anti-hypertensive market are Merck, Sun Pharma, Nicholas Piramal & AstraZeneca.

With Indian economy charging up and a 24/7 culture making deep inroads, a highly skilled workforce is constantly grappling with tighter deadlines leading to a rise in lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, heart conditions, diabetes etc.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is called a "silent killer'' due to its stealthy nature and it causes major organ damage if not treated.