Suven gets product patent from India and Japan
16 COMPANY NEWS l BioSpectrum | November 2017 | www. biospectrumindia. com
Intas Pharma slashes cancer drug prices
Suven gets product patent from India and Japan
Drug firm Suven Life Sciences has been granted a patent each by India and Japan for a drug used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Suven has been granted one product patent from India and one product patent from Japan corresponding to the New Chemical Entities( NCEs) for the treatment of disorders associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The patents are valid till 2027 and 2032, respectively.
The granted claims of the patents are being developed as therapeutic agents and are useful in the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’ s disease, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder( ADHD), Huntington’ s disease, Parkinson’ s and Schizophrenia.
The company is very pleased by the grant of these patents for the pipeline of molecules in CNS( central nervous system) arena that are being developed for cognitive disorders with high unmet medical need with huge market potential globally.
Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced that it will cut down the prices of Bevacizumab drug by 60 per cent. The company states that it will bring relief to a large number of cancer patients in India for whom the drug was out of reach until now.
The Intas Pharma therapy is now priced at Rs 39,995 for the dose strength of 400 mg variant, which makes it 60 per cent less than the currently available options worth about Rs one lakh. Every year over seven lakh patients die due to various types of cancer in India.
Natco Pharma plans API expansion with more investment
Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma is planning to expand its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient( API) and intermediates manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. The company is looking at investing in its existing facility, in Thiruvallur District.
The company would be investing around Rs 100 crore in addition to the existing investment of Rs 86.82 crore in the facility to manufacture 16 campaign products at a time, out of 42 API products and R & D activity, with a production capacity of 66.32 tons per annum from existing production capacity of 46.267 tons per annum. The proposed expansion is in a total land span
Bevacizumab slows down the growth of new blood vessels and is used in treating multiple cancers like colorectal, ovarian, cervical, lung and recurrent glioblastoma( a type of brain tumour). The drug has been available in India since 2004 but the cost was prohibitive to most patients. Intas Pharma has been growing at a 27 per cent CAGR over the last five years with an even stronger profit growth. Ranked No 10 in the domestic market, the company is one of the top five in the Indian chronic therapy category.
across 10.57 hectares, which is in possession of the company.
The proposed expansion is expected to bring the total jobs in the plant, including existing staff, to 350 direct and 100 indirect jobs. The proposed products will be manufactured on the basis of proven technologies from in-house R & D and private consultants for the cost-effective and environmentally friendly practices, it added. The company has two API manufacturing facilities, one in Mekaguda village, Rangareddy District, Telangana and the other in Manali, Tamil Nadu. The Manali plant is manufacturing various cytotoxic APIs and biotechnology-based products.