Cadila Healthcare to take innovator drug to US,Europe markets

Cadila Healthcare will soon start filings for approval of its innovator drug Lipaglyn in advanced markets such as the US and Europe. The drug has current patients base of 50,000 in India within the first year of its launch.

Ganesh Nayak, chief operating officer and executive director, Cadila Healthcare, told dna, "We launched Lipaglyn in the country on September 16 last year and we have till date 50,000 satisfied patients using the product. We have around 3,000 diabetologists, cardiologists and physicians. For us, this forms a good database. Now, we can take this product to the world."

Lipaglyn, to be used to treat diabetic dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia in Type II diabetes, is the first new chemical entity (NCE) discovered and developed indigenously by an Indian pharma company. This drug has a unique dual action of working on both glycemic control and the lipid controls.

Nayak said that the three biggest markets globally are the US, Europe and Japan. "We will simultaneously start filing in these markets and the regulatory process will start within the next few months. Within the next three-to-five years we would bring in our lipaglyn at the global level in terms of sales and marketing. Japan will take a little more time since there are some technical requirements in that market. Also to market in these places, we might look at different modules of selling this product there," he added.

In another development, Zydus Wellness, a subsidiary of Ahmedabad-based Cadila Healthcare has recently launched a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative called 'Donate your Calories'. This campaign has been initiated by Zydus Wellness' leading brand SugarFree (a low-calorie sugar substitute). The aim is to promote healthy eating and to save sugar calories by converting to a healthier choice, and the calories saved will then be donated to underprivileged children.

"This is a part of our CSR initiatives. We have tied up with an NGO called Akshaya Patra which feeds 14-15 lakh school children everyday. From "donate your calories", whatever will be the amount of calories saved will be donated to this NGO in terms of monetary proceeds. Initially, the initiative will be for a three-month period, that is, from October to December, and depending on its success we will review it. Our target is to save 300 crore of calories within these first three months," Nayek said.