Pfizer to source 40 off-patent cancer care drugs from Strides

Global pharma major Pfizer is to source source 40 off-patent (generic) cancer care products from Bangalore-based Strides Arcolab and sell the products in the United States.

Announcing this deal today, the two companies said they had formed a collaboration wherein Pfizer will commercialise off-patent sterile injectable and oral products in the US through its Established Products Business Unit (EPBU), which focuses on generics. The EPBU launched its US injectables team less than 10 months earlier and is already marketing products there.

These dosage-form cancer care products will be licensed and supplied by Strides and Onco Laboratories Ltd and Onco Therapies Ltd, two joint ventures between Strides and Aspen, South Africa, in which each has a 50 per cent ownership interest. The financial terms of the supply agreement were not disclosed.

Strides, with a top line of close to Rs 2,000 crore, will deliver the 40 off-patent products, many of which are oncology therapeutics, to healthcare providers and patients in the US, by joining Pfizer’s commercial infrastructure with Strides’s manufacturing capabilities. The first of the products commercialised under this collaboration is expected to be launched in 2010.

“This Strides collaboration is new and exciting, and we are encouraged about the potential of this relationship,” said David Simmons, president and general manager of Pfizer’s EPBU. “In addition, this agreement brings the total number of products in-licensed by our Established Products Business Unit to more than 200 — resulting in a total business unit portfolio of approximately 600 products for patients.”