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Indian pharma companies step up R&D expenditure in 2004-05

The new Product Patent Law is beginning to bear on domestic drug companies to bring out new products. To achieve this, pharmaceutical companies are increasing their expenditure on R&D. This is evident from the R&D expenditure figures of top 12 Indian pharmaceutical companies.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, with a team of over 900, spent Rs 331.39 crore during the year ended Dec 2004, compared with Rs 238 crore in the previous year. Ranbaxy has obtained several approvals in developed markets and made a significant progress in its new drug delivery system proejcts.

Dr Reddy’s, the second largest pharma company has spent almost Rs 283 crore in 2004-05, against to Rs 199 crore in 2003-04. This accounts for 18.1% of the company’s sales turnover, which is about 5% higher than the previous year. “The only viable way of securing higher growth and profits and thereby reaching global scale of operation is through successful R&D,” feels Dr K Anji Reddy, Chairman of the company.

The other major pharma companies to increase R&D spending in 2004-05 are Lupin - Rs 87 crore; Sun Pharma - Rs 145.9 crore; Cadilla Healthcare - Rs 71.10 crore; Wockhardt - Rs 69 crore and Torrent Pharma - Rs 51 crore. The total R&D spending by the 12 top companies are estimated to be Rs 1063 crore, a 41.5% rise over the previous year’s Rs 751 crore spent by these companies on R&D. This was despite the sharp fall in revenue and profits in 2004-05 in the pharma sector.

Nicholas Piramal acquires 17% stake in Canadian biotech firm

Leading Indian pharma company, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL), has acquired a 17.1% stake in BioSyntech, a Canada-based biotech research company, for Rs 23 crore. Both companies have agreed to explore opportunities to collaborate for research & development activities for products using BioSyntech’s technology.

BioSyntech specialises in the discovery development and manufacture of cost-effective and physician-friendly biologic implants for therapeutic delivery and regenerative medicine. The company also specialises in gel-based products that are liquid at room temperature and solid at body temperature.

India, Israel to collaborate in R&D

India has signed a research and development initiative with Israel to
promote collaborative industrial research in areas like biotechnology, nano-technology and space sciences.

Science and Technology Minister, Kapil Sibal, who recently visited Israel said that Israel’s Technion Institute would cooperate in nanosciences. A programme of action has been chalked out for cooperation between Israel’s Weizmann Institute and India’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Other areas identified for joint venture are alternative sources of energy and water technology and also electric and solar buses.