Venus receives becomes marketing approval for meropenem in Gulf

Venus Remedies has become the first Indian generic drug manufacturer to get approval for meropenem from Gulf Cooperation Council with marketing authorisation from Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). The company is planning to launch this product in Saudi Arabia, considered one of the most lucrative pharmaceutical markets in the world, early next year.
 
Pawan Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director, Venus Remedies, said, “Venus has become the first generic drug manufacturer in the world to get marketing approval for this product from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The $35-million market for meropenem in Saudi Arabia offers a huge opportunity to us, and we are aiming at capturing a 25% share in this market within the first year of the launch itself.”
 
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Meropenem is an off-patented antibacterial agent of the carbapenem class of antibiotics, which caters to diseases with a broad range of serious infections caused by single ormultiple susceptible bacteria in both adults and children.
 
Since Saudi Arabia relies substantially on imports for pharmaceutical products due to insufficient domestic production and lack of indigenous research capabilities to meet the local demands, this marketing authorisation offers a great opportunity to Venus to capture a fair share in the meropenem market in all the GCC markets, including Saudi Arabia. With the SFDA being a major reference authority for regulatory standards and compliance and Venus Remedies emerging as the first and only generics manufacturer for meropenem in Saudi Arabia, apart from AstraZeneca, an innovator pharmaceutical company, Venus enjoys a competitive edge in getting marketing approval for meropenem from all GCC member nations and Middle East countries.
 
With growing population, pharmaceutical sales in Saudi Arabia, which stood at $4 billion in 2012, are expected to surpass $7 billion by 2018. As evident from this, Saudi Arabia is set to emerge as one of the world’s fastest growing markets in years to come.