MSD vies for top 5 slot in Indian pharma industry

By OUR CORRESPONDENT

Hyderabad, May 7: MSD Pharmaceuticals, the Indian arm of global pharma giant Merck & Co, aims to be amongst the top 5 drug companies in the country by 2015.

"We are planning to bring the best medicines from the global portfolio of Merck to India. The company aims at launching a new medicine every six months for the next three years in the country," MSD Pharma managing director Dr Naveen Rao said while launching Januvia, its new diabetes drug, in India. The company will sell the once-daily, type 2 diabetes tablet for Rs 42.80, almost one-fifth of its price in the American market.

Januvia is the company’s first patented drug to be sold in India. It is also the first time that Merck has priced a drug differently in India.

"The drug has an effective glucose lowering agent. Also, it has an excellent safety profile and has been priced affordably, after consulting doctors and patients," Mr Rao told this correspondent.

Januvia stops the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 4 from inactivating the body’s insulin-stimulating hormones and keeps the essential insulin flowing.

The drug market in India is worth $3 billion which should grow to $20 billion in the next 7 years, he said.

India has 32 million patients suffering from the disease, a number which is estimated to grow to 80 million by 2030.

"India has the highest number of diabetes patients in the world and the market for diabetes drugs here is Rs. 1000 crore," sales and marketing director Sanjeev Navangul said.