Dr Reddy's arm may bag 8 drug supply contracts

betapharm AG, the German subsidiary of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, may win Rs 800-1,000 crore business from eight tentative exclusive drug supply contracts it received from Allgemeinen Ortskrankenkassen (AOK), Germany’s largest health insurance company, according to a section of analysts.

However, Dr Reddy’s may have to re-orient its business strategies for betapharm in the changed German drug market enviornment to protect its margins, predicted industry experts.

Sources said betapharm’s bid for 48 out of the 64 products offered in the tender process and could secure only eight products in the preliminary round. Compared to this, current leading players in the German market such as Israel’s Teva gained about 15 supply contracts for finished dosages along with a partner, 1A pharma (a German unit of Novartis’s generic arm) got about a dozen contracts and Winthrop Pharma received about seven approvals. betapharm is the fourth largest generic drug supplier in Germany.