Aurobindo Pharma lines up 15 anti-cancer drugs
Aurobindo Pharma Limited has trained its guns on oncology, dermatology, hormonal products and inhalers, as the city-based pharma major pushes itself towards the goal of achieving $5 billion in total revenues by 2020.
To foray into dermatology, inhaler segments as it eyes $5-billion biz by 2020
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma Limited has trained its guns on oncology, dermatology, hormonal products and inhalers, as the city-based pharma major pushes itself towards the goal of achieving $5 billion in total revenues by 2020.
“The company is in the process of developing a wide range of oncology and hormonal products. We have selected over 50 oncology products in our portfolio and the plans are to initiate the exhibit batches for more than 15 products in 2016-17 and the dossier filing in regulated markets is expected to be initiated in early 2017,” Aurobindo Pharma said in its Annual Report for 2015-16.
The product range planned in the oncology and hormonal segments include vials (wet and dry vials), prefilled syringes, capsules and tablets that are used in the hospitals as well as oncology and renal clinics.
The drug maker has established a dedicated research & development centre in the city for generic research in oncology and hormones. The centre is expected to develop anti-cancer and hormonal products, both for solid and parenteral dosage forms.
The company is also adding a new manufacturing block to produce oncology active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to meet future requirements. The facility is likely to go on stream in the next financial year. On its foray into new clinical areas, Aurobindo said it would enter dermatology and inhalation specialties with a basket of products.
“Initially, development work has commenced for two inhalation products, with another four in the pipeline. And, 18 dermatology products have been selected for development,” the drug maker said, adding that it intended to complete the product filings by early 2018 and commercialise the products upon approval.
The company is also betting big on the over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Its subsidiary, Aurohealth, manufactures and markets a wide range of liquid and solid OTC products. “The mission is to develop as many OTC products for the US retail market as possible, providing a consistent and reliable supply at a fair price and of the highest quality,” it maintained.
Aurobindo has two plants for producing the OTC products, and one of the plants is located at New Jersey in the US. It set up the second facility at Jedcherla near Hyderabad with a capacity to manufacture about eight billion doses of solid OTC products annually.
“We are striving to become a scientifically-stronger company, with newer technologies and difficult-to-develop specialty generics. We aspire to become a science-based company with high quality earnings,” said K Nityananda Reddy, Vice-Chairman, Aurobindo Pharma.
The drug major clocked Rs 13,896 crore (about $2.08 billion) in total revenues during 2015-16, a growth of 15 per cent from Rs 12,120.5 crore in the previous fiscal year. It has set a target to achieve a $5-billion turnover by 2020, more than two-fold jump from the current level.
By P Madhusudhan Reddy
