Therapeutic touch

Mumbai, Feb. 27: Wockhardt Ltd today said it will soon launch anti-ulcer drug Ranitidine in the US. The United States Food & Drug Administration has approved the product, which will be available over the counter.

Wockhardt?s US subsidiary, Wockhardt USA Inc, will introduce the drug. The current market for the product is pegged at $61 million with a unit growth rate of 17 per cent.

With the OTC version, Wockhardt will have the full range of Ranitidine medications in the world?s largest pharmaceutical market.

According to Lalit Kumar, executive director, while the company is a major player in the Ranitidine prescription market in the US with 150 mg and 300 mg tablets, the drugs launched in 2002 have steadily increased their market share.

This is Wockhardt?s second product which has received the abbreviated new drug application approval in 2006. The company recorded a robust 50 per cent growth in formulation sales in the US in 2005.

Last year, Wockhardt?s two key products improved their market share in the US. Bethanechol Chloride cornered a 44 per cent market share from 40 per cent and Enalapril 28 per cent from 20 per cent.

Wockhardt has been adopting the inorganic route to grow in key developed markets.

The OTC version of Ranitidine is its twelfth product in the US and the second OTC drug after Famotidine. Wockhardt has 21 applications pending with USFDA.

It manufactures the active pharmaceutical ingredient and tablets at its USFDA-approved facilities in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Last year, the USFDA approved Wockhardt?s sterile injectable facility as well as facilities for sterile bulk drugs (active pharmaceutical ingredient) and formulations spread over three locations in the country.

The approvals for six plants at Aurangabad, Waluj and Ankleshwar came in a record five months time.