Wockhardt launches Ondansetron in US

Wockhardt's US subsidiary, Wockhardt USA, has launched Ondansetron injection in the United States on December 26.

Ondansetron is the generic version of Glaxo SmithKline's Zofran injection and is used in controlling nausea and vomiting following cancer chemotherapy.

In fact, the pharma company launched the injection on the first working day after the patent for the same expired on December 24.

"This is Wockhardt's eighth product approval from United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in 2006 said Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala.

"We now market 15 products in the US, 10 of them launched during 2006."

Ondansetron is the largest selling anti-emetic product in the world. Sales of Zofran (Ondansetron's generic name) injection in the US during the year ending September 30, 2006, were $628 million.

Ondansetron injection is manufactured at the US FDA-certified sterile formulation plant at Waluj in Aurangabad. Wockhardt has two other sterile formulation plants approved by US FDA in India and the UK.