The New Year rings in some good news for Glenmark Pharma.
The Mumbai-based company is set to receive about $15-20 million per year for supplying API (active pharmaceutical ingredients), or bulk drugs, to Salix Pharma for diarrhoea drug Crofelemer (brand name Fulyzaq) in regulated markets.
Moreover, Glenmark has the potential to receive as much as $60 million by filing and commercially launching Crofelemer in emerging markets.
This is the second positive for Glenmark in the recent few days.
Last week, Glenmark had inked a deal with US-based Forest Laboratories for the development of novel compounds for treating inflammatory conditions and was set to receive $9 million as upfront payment.
Glenn Saldanha, Glenmark’s chairman and MD, had said the company is open to deals, was consistently doing deals and getting money on them.
Crofelemer is in-licensed from Napo Pharma by Salix Pharma and Glenmark that have the rights to manufacture and develop the drug in emerging and regulated markets.
The US-based Salix has just received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing Crofelemer.
The drug is used as an anti-diarrhoeal for HIV/AIDS patients and has a market potential of $300-500 million.
Under the deal, Salix has committed $21.6 million to Glenmark for investments into capacity creation, of which Glenmark has received $15 million as milestone.
“With the launch of the drug, we expect Salix to remit balance milestone income of $7 million to Glenmark,” wrote analysts Perin Ali and Manoj Garg from Edelweiss Research in a report.
