Lupin in marketing pact with US firms

Lupin Ltd has tied up with the US-based specialty pharma marketing company Henry Scheil to market former's ceftriaxone generic in the doctors clinic segment.

Henry Scheil is one of the leading pharma marketing companies catering to clinics, which is a significant prescription segment in the US.

The company is planning to launch the product in the US on July 20.

Ceftriaxone, an antibiotic, is the largest selling cephalosporin with an estimated market size of around $800 million there.

Lupin is the first generic company to receive FDA's approval for the generic version as the molecule is going off patent on July 19.

Since the company has received the FDA nod for different strengths, all these variants will be launched together.

Lupin has also tied up with Bexter Travineol to market the product in the US hospital segment earlier.

With the marketing alliance with these two companies, Lupin is expected to tap a large chunk of the US prescription market using the expertise of these two specialty marketing companies.

"We expect to cater to a major share of the market with this product, which is likely to touch around $200 million. It is expected to contribute to the company's revenue significantly this financial year," said Lupin chairman D B Gupta.

Currently, only two companies have received the FDA approval for the ceftriaxone generic for marketing in the US. The other generic player which has received the approval for the generic ceftriaxone is Sandoz.

Gupta said Lupin has a four-prong strategy to sustain the profitability and the right product mix in the domestic as well as regulated markets. The company has plans to raise its R&D spend from Rs 84 crore last year to Rs 110 crore this year, he added.

Lupin's wholly owned subsidiary, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc (LPI), has an alliance with Cornerstone BioPharma as a promotion partner in the US for its Suprax (cefixime) antiinfective.