Corona Remedies ties up with Spanish firm for ORS formulation

Corona is eying a 10% share of the Rs 2,000 cr ORS formulations market in the first year

Ahmedabad-based pharma player Corona Remedies private limited has tied up with Spanish pharma company Medical Diagnostic Aragon (MDA) to market its oral rehydration salt (ORS) formulation called Rehidrata-T in India. Corona would have the exclusive marketing rights to sell Rehidrata-T in the country for the next ten years.

Rihadrata-T is now available in 32 markets around the globe and as Nirav K Mehta, director, Corona Remedies claimed, "It is a more palatable form of the ORS formulations compared to the conventional forms available in the market. It is based on hydragel technology and comes in interesting flavours."

Corona is eying a 10 per cent share of the Rs 2,000 crore ORS formulations market in the first year. "We see a lot of need gap in the market, as sachets have a palatability issue. We will take the doctors' prescription route to sell Rihadrata-T, and over time move on to over-the-counter (OTC) segment."

Rihadrata-T has been priced at Rs 35 per sachet, while a conventional ORS pack costs in the range of Rs 27-30.

Corona had earlier tied up with a Belgian firm KitoZyme to market Chitosan, a natural fat binder under the brand name Rasva.

Mehta elaborated that currently, import and sale of drugs constitutes around 5-7 per cent of its turnover, while nearly 70 per cent comes from drug sales manufactured in-house at its Himachal Pradesh plant and the remaining 25 per cent comes from product sales sourced through contract manufacturing.

The company clocked a turnover of Rs 100 crore during 2012-13 and is eying a turnover of Rs 150 crore by the end of this fiscal.