Venus arm in marketing tie-up with Mylan

Meropenem's global annual generic sales stood at $1,879 mn in 2012

Venus Pharma GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Venus Remedies Limited, has entered into a distribution-cum-outlicensing agreement with Mylan, the world's third-largest generic drug manufacturer, for marketing its generic broad-spectrum antibiotic ‘Meropenem’ in three European countries -- Denmark, Sweden and Finland — for five years.

“Under this non-exclusive marketing agreement, we will manufacture the drug at our Baddi facility, which recently got a renewed European Union good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification, while the batch release and logistics will be handled by our Germany facility Venus Pharma GmbH,” Ashutosh Jain, executive director and chief operating officer of Venus Pharma GmbH, Werne, Germany, said in a release .

“The addition of territories on the basis of strategic tie-ups with our existing partners has re-established the faith of our customers in our quality standards and timely deliveries. This joint venture will further help Venus Pharma GmbH and its collaborators in maintaining their market position to figure among the top five players with around 30 per cent share in Meropenem markets in countries like Germany, France and the UK.”

Meropenem’s global annual generic sales stood at $1,879 million in 2012 and are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.5 per cent to reach around $2,100 million in 2014-15. Meropenem is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in ICU infections as a last resort for the treatment of life-threatening infections. According to IMS Health, its market size in Denmark, Sweden and Finland is approximately Euro 12.54 million.

Venus is holding talks for more strategic tie-ups in regulated markets with multinational companies that are already operating in these territories.

The facilities of Venus in India have a capacity of manufacturing 16 million units of Meropenem a year on single-shift basis. The company is currently utilising 50% of its capacity and hence it has sufficient excess capacity to meet the growing market needs, the release said.