Cipla, 5 Firms In Viagra Race

After the phenomenal success of the US based Pfizer Incs potency drug, Viagra in the US, at least six Indian pharma companies including the Rs 452 crore Cipla are working overtime to introduce their own products of the same molecule, sildenafil citrate, in the domestic market.

Cipla has already applied for Food and Drug Administration approvals for its new product.

Confirming the move, top executives said the company was working on developing the same molecule. However, they refused to divulge other details.

Other names making rounds for entering the manufacturing of this drug are Dr Reddys and Ranbaxy. Orchid Chemicals & Pharma is understood to have also applied to the FDA for manufacturing the bulk in India, with plans for exports.

 

It is not known whether Cipla applied for FDA approval before the Chennai-based Orchid.

Indian companies have adopted two lines of action - one is entering into manufacturing the bulk drug and secondly, developing the formulation.

Analysts tracking the pharma sector indicate that Indian companies are introducing the same molecule without modifications in order to save time and launch the product before a patent is obtained by Pfizer Inc in India. They could develop modified molecules later and obtain separate patents on them, they added.

Viagra has been dubbed a wonder drug for curing impotence in males.

Pfizer Inc is pursuing more than 100 discovery projects in more than 17 therapeutic areas and is supporting more than 150 research partnerships.

However, some analysts have expressed the view that the company could lose out in the Indian market if it does not launch its research molecules.

A senior executive in a consultancy firm said this is not going to be a solitary case. Indian companies are aware that product patents will be effective after 2005 and they are gearing up to introduce products not yet patented.

With India committed to signing the TRIPS by April 1999, Indian companies have speeded up the process of

analogue or discovery research.

They have plans to bring in molecules before product patents are effective.

DG Shah, promoter of Vision Consulting Group, said These developments only show the strengths of Indian research and indicate their potential to enter into discovery research.