Venus Remedies signs deal with Korean co for antibiotic drug

Pharma firm Venus Remedies today said it has signed a deal with South Korean drug company Goodwills Co Ltd for exclusive marketing of its antibiotic drug 'Elores'.

The deal was signed after Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) of Republic of South Korea granted the patent to the product, Panchkula (Haryana) based Venus Remedies said in a statement.

"...We are confident that our partnership with Goodwills Korea shall take our research product to its meaningful stage in South Korea. Goodwills will have exclusive marketing rights of the product till validity of its patent in year 2025," company's Chairman and MD Pawan Chaudhary said.

The company, however, didn't disclose any financial details of the deal.

Goodwills Co is planning to launch this product by mid-2014, post regulatory approval from Korean FDA for which the dossier is already under evaluation, the statement said.

The overall pharmaceutical market of South Korea is approximately $20 billion, growing at CAGR 6.5%, out of which antibacterial market is around $2 billion.

Elores, an antibiotic product meant for multidrug resistant infections, is designed to address a 15% of this segment (near $300 million), where the company is hopeful of capturing 15% market share within three years of its launch making it over $45 million product in South Korea, it said.

"Infections caused by multi drug resistant gram negative microorganisms often fail to respond to last resort of treatment that is penems, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death.

"Elores is addressing a huge unmet medical need and in South Korean market at such point of time, it can prove to be all the more significant for society at large," said company's Joint MD, Manu Chaudhary.

Venus Remedies would supply Elores out of its state-of-art manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, the statement said.

The company is also in talks with international pharma companies in regulated markets for the strategic tie-ups for Elores, it added.