Hyderabad, Dec. 23: Hetero Drugs is eyeing a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore in fiscal 2006 after bagging the sub-licence from Roche to produce and market Rs 900 crore worth Oseltamivir, the generic version of Tamiflu.

Ranbaxy, Cipla and Nicholas Piramal were also in the race for the sub-licence.

Hetero will market the Tamiflu drug both in the API and finished format in 50 less developed and developing countries. Governments will use this drug to fight avian influenza.

“We expect revenues upwards of Rs 1,000 crore from the Tamiflu in 2006,” Hetero Drugs chairman-cum-managing director B. Partharathy Reddy told The Telegraph.

While Hetero Drugs has committed to delivering 1 million capsules of Oseltamivir to the Indian government by January 15, supplies to other countries will also start next month.

“Hetero Drugs is the first company that was identified to be able to speed up the agreed delivery deadlines in the first half of 2006,” a Roche release said.

“Hetero has been working on Tamiflu for the past two-and-a-half years and it invested $17 million on capacity and new equipment to manufacture the drug,” Reddy said.

Avian influenza has become a potential global health threat, and the WHO has identified Oseltamivir as the most effective drug for its treatment in humans.

The agreement is one of its kind by a multinational firm with an Indian company and the first since the patent legislation of 2005 has come into force, Reddy said.