New dose

Mumbai, March 28: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Shasun Chemicals and Drugs today joined hands to develop 12 generic products meant for the US market.

Under the agreement, Shasun, which is an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) company, will develop and license 12 generic products to Glenmark. Glenmark will subsequently file the ANDAs and obtain regulatory approval in the US market.

After receiving the approval, Glenmark Pharmaceutical Inc, the US subsidiary, will market the products, while Shasun will be responsible for manufacture and supply. The development and regulatory costs and profits on sale in the US will be shared equally between Glenmark and Shasun.

The product list includes a mixture of off-patent and patent-protected molecules with cumulative annual sales in the US of $8 billion. The products that come under the agreement will be filed over a three-year period with the first filing expected this year.

Glenmark managing director and CEO Glenn Saldanha said, ?It brings together the strengths of the two companies and accelerates our joint ability to become serious generic players in the US.?

The company has completed filing six ANDAs till date and expects to file three more by May. The company will also purchase two ANDAs from Clonmel Healthcare and has recently signed two partnership agreements with US-based companies Interpharm and Konec for two generic products.

Since then, it has started marketing these generic products through its front-end in the US market. It expects to have at least five products on the market before March 2006.

Shasun Chemicals joint managing director S. Abhaya Kumar said while it has set up a formulation unit at Pondicherry at a cost of Rs 40 crore, it now wants to emerge as a preferred outsourcing partner.