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Lupin-APP joint venture set to go on stream

Rajesh Unnikrishnan

Lupin Laboratory's marketing venture with American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP) will take off by mid-April. As per the agreement, APP will launch a series of Lupin's anti-infective drug, cefotaxime, in the US market.

Aventis is the leader in the US anti-infective segment with a market share of more than 60 per cent. Senior officials with Lupin said: "We are set to launch our cefotaxime range in the US. APP will start marketing our products this month."

According to the pact, Lupin will supply the cefotaxime line from its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bulk drug facility in Mandideep. The bulk will be made into finished dosages by APP, which have already registered the formulations in its own name. Cefotaxime is the first sterile cephlosporin from Lupin's staple to be marketed in the US.

Cefotaxime went off patent around one year ago in the US, but Takeda, a Japan pharma major, devised a new process to manufacture it and licensed out the process to the original patent holder, Aventis. Takeda's manufacturing process was patented, blocking other players' entry to the market.

Lupin has invented a process that does not infringe the one patented by Takeda. Lupin is the first company outside the US to manufacture the product.

It is expected that Lupin's entry into the US market may force Aventis to slash its cefotaxime-based formulations' prices. In the last few months three domestic drug majors Ranbaxy, Wockhardt and Dr Reddy's had terminated marketing agreements with their US partners.

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