| To target US, Europe, Africa and south-east Asia in the first phase
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| Wockhardt Ltd, the Rs 1,100 crore pharmaceutical major which was the first Indian company to launch human insulin this month, is now eyeing the export market for its biotech products, including Wosulin, the recombinant human insulin.
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| Wockhardt is also planning to launch Hepatitis-A vaccine during the year, which will be its third vaccine product next to Biovac-B and Biovac-T, the typhoid vaccines which were launched in January.
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| “With the launch of Wosulin, which made Wockhardt the fourth pharmaceutical company in the world to produce human insulin and first Indian company to produce insulin under r-DNA technology, we will also target the insulin markets outside the country in next two-three years. In fact, we are planning to enter into the entire world market with Wosulin. But in the first phase we will go to the US, major countries in Europe, Africa and South-East Asia,” R J Jha, senior vice-president, said on Tuesday.
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| Jha, who was in Ahmedabad today to launch the four variants of Wosulin in Gujarat, said once Wosulin finds a stable ground in India, the company will apply with the regulatory authorities across the world, including the USFDA and drug administrative bodies in Europe and Africa, which all have stringent norms.
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| “We need to wait for at least two years before applying with these bodies as they have conditions such as the drug or vaccine should be marketed in the country of origin for a specified time following which it can be marketed in their countries. We have invested over Rs 100 crore for Wosulin manufacturing thus far in our Aurangabad plant and the investment will grow further for the marketing network to be expanded across the country. We will also make substantial investment for various awareness programmes talking about benefits of human insulin vis-a-vis animal insulin which have been dominating the Indian market,” Jha said.
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| At present, the Indian insulin market is estimated at Rs 250 crore per annum, which, according to Jha, will grow by 195 per cent by 2025 and the animal insulin makers dominate the market with 90 per cent share in the country.
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| “We will try to be the leader among the human insulin market in India in the initial stage which is pegged at only Rs 25 crore and slowly we will try to claim a stake in the animal insulin market as we have priced our product aggressively and almost at par with most of animal insulin available in India,” Vivek Nair, product manager, said.
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| Nair said Wockhardt has initiated the process of taking its Biovac-B outside the country and is filing application with drug administrative bodies in major foreign countries.
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| “Biovac-B was launched more than two years back by us and it has already proved its efficacy and reliability in India. Now we are taking this product also in the various export markets,” Nair said.
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| However, he denied to divulge information about which are the countries where Wockhardt is filing approval applications for marketing Biovac-B. |
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