Health and Medicines

Indian biotechnology firm Biocon Ltd said on Monday it has signed a definitive agreement with Mylan Inc to develop, manufacture and supply high value generic biologic drugs globally. As part of the agreement, both companies will share development, capital and other costs to bring the products to market, it said in a statement. Mylan will have exclusive commercialisation rights in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the European Union countries through a profit sharing arrangement with Biocon. Mylan will have co-exclusive commercialisation rights with Biocon in all other markets.

Shares of Biocon rose 2.67% to Rs 232.80 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). “Through this partnership, we hope to deliver high quality affordable bio-generic antibodies and biologics, thereby addressing a need to lower spiraling healthcare costs in both the developed and the emerging economies,” Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said.

Businessworld
Noemie Bisserbe

The pharmaceuticals export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), set up by the ministry of commerce, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) are painting two very different pictures of the state of India’s drug exports in the run-up to the budget. According to Pharmexcil’s figures, exports to the US recorded a healthy 25.1 per cent growth to Rs 6,380 crore in the 11 months ended February 2009 compared to the same period last year.

However, a Ficci study released last month says that the global economic downturn has hurt the pharma industry, and drug exports to the US fell 37 per cent to $478 million (Rs 2,307 crore) in the five months ended February 2009, compared to $756 million (Rs 3,648 crore) in the same period last year. The different time frame as well as the currencies selected for the studies could be the reason for the stark difference. Still, the contrast is startling.

The ninth edition of Bangalore Bio, organised by the State Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology, and the Vision Group on Biotechnology, will be held from June 18 to 20. The show will host 100 biotech speakers including Nobel Laureate Richard J. Roberts, who will deliver the key-note address.

Discussions will be held on process development and bio manufacturing, medical devices diagnostics and informatics, animal cell culture, development of vaccines, and industrial biotechnology among others. Bangalore Bio this year will see 120 exhibitors from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, South Africa, United States, Italy, Spain, Singapore and Japan. Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, which sponsors the annual biotechnology show, said, "Global research alliances and partnerships are critical to do research in a more cost affective, efficient and expedient way."

Meanwhile Shaw's company Biocon Limited got the BioSingapore Asia Pacific Biotechnology Award for "Best Listed Company" at the BioMedical Asia event held between 16 & 19 March 2009.

Biocon launches human insulin analogue Basalog

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw holds a vial of Basalog, a drug to control diabetes during its launch in Bangalore, India, Friday, May 29, 2009. Basalog, a long acting human insulin, will be available in 3 and 10 millimeter vials (photo: AP).

The product replaces other forms of insulin that do not act for a full 24 hours and require multiple injections. "The number of diabetics in the world, now 200 to 230 million, is expected to double by 2020. India alone may have 40 million diabetics and one out of every five diabetics in the world is likely to be of Indian origin by then," said Shaw at the launch.

Meanwhile Biocon's oral insulin drug IN-105 is in long-term human clinical trials.