Aurobindo Pharma To Focus On Low-Cost Drugs

The Hyderabad-based bulk drugs major Aurobindo Pharma has chalked out a pricing strategy to make available life-saving drugs at reasonable rates and, at the same time, expand its base in the formulations business to make itself an integrated pharmaceutical company.

The company, which registered a 100 per cent growth in the formulations division with a sales of Rs 55 crore during fiscal 2000-01, is aiming at repeating the performance in the current financial year also.

Aurobindo has set up four divisions in formulations to cater to various therapeutic segments. In the "Argus" division, meant for the cardiology, diabetology and neuropsychiatry segments, the company is set to launch an atorvastatin drug (which tackles both cholesterol and triglycerides) at Rs 10.50 per 10-mg tablet compared with a price of Rs 25 for its counterparts, says Srinivas Lanka, director (formulations) of the company.

Trimetazidine, a once-a-day drug for ischemic heart disease, would also be priced at Rs 7 compared with the market price of Rs 28, Srinivas said. The recent launch of the company's HIV care products has resulted in a 20 per cent drop in the prices of other segment players' drugs.

"All the products which we are introducing will have the advantage of competitive pricing due to the strong base we have in bulk drugs," Srinivas said, adding that, "our efforts in the last one-and-a half years on developing new dosage forms are now yielding results. With the products in the pipeline, we would be able to introduce at least one product a fortnight in the next one year."

The company expects to record formulations sales of Rs 120 crore during the current fiscal, Srinivas said. This would consist of 10 per cent of the estimated Rs 1,200 crore total turnover of the company as against six per cent last year. Out of this, around 60 per cent is expected from domestic operations.