Strides Arcolab, one of India's leading integrated manufacturer and exporter of finished pharmaceutical dosage forms - both branded and generic, is planning to expand its range of products in the over-the-counter (OTC) segment in Brazil, apart from entering into its branded generics market. As of now, the company has two manufacturing plants in the region - one at Vittoria and another, a global facility for penems, (class of b-lactams) at Campos, Rio de Janeiro.
The company's product range comprises generics and hospital products.
The generics are mainly hospital products covering a range of therapeutic categories, including immunosuppressants, penicillins, cephalosporins and antibiotics like anti infectives, anti inflammatory and anti emetic. These are available in various forms such as sterile injectables, orals and semi solids.
"A large window of opportunity for these products has opened up through our tie-up with Cellofarm, a leading Brazilian distributor of hospital products. The OTC segment is equally well served by our merger with Infabra, a well-entrenched marketer of OTC products, said, Ravi Seth, CEO, international operations, Strides Arcolab in an email interaction.
In Brazil, Strides' unit in Vittoria was set-up with an investment of around $10 million and is used to manufacture orals and semi solids. The new plant at Campos was set-up at an investment of $50 million and has a line for sterile injectables, penicillin and penems, besides orals. Requisite approvals have been obtained from ANVISA, the Brazilian regulatory authority. The new facility will also be filing for food and drug administration (FDA) approval.
While Cellofarm is into manufacturing and distribution of generics and OTC products in Brazil, Strides' plant at Vittoria services other Latin American markets. In addition, Strides has entered into joint venture partnership with Aspen Pharmacare, Africa's largest pharmaceutical manufacturer and the largest generics manufacturer in the southern hemisphere, to concentrate on the Latin American operations. The Latin American operations are headed by V Madhusudan, who leads a team of 200 people.
The total size of the Brazilian pharmaceuticals market is valued at around $11 billion, of which hospital supplies market constitutes around $2.5 billion. Brazil is one of the largest pharma markets in Latin America and presents a lot of opportunities.
Strides has a substantial share in Latin American region and is expected to grow at a fast pace with the Aspen partnership. In fact, Strides and Aspen together have put in place a significant fund pool for this region to generate both organic and inorganic growth, Seth noted.
Strides is the largest Indian player in this region which also features Indian companies like Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma and Torrent among others. It is the only Indian company in Latin America with a regional manufacturing strategy and ranks among the fastest growing new companies. The company is present in the region since 2000 and now it is the leading player in Brazil in the area of hospital supplies, according to Ravi Seth.
As an economy, Brazil is growing at an accelerated pace and the pharma industry has also experienced significant growth in the past few years. The sector is also expected to witness strong growth. Having a manufacturing facility is a huge advantage in this land. The increasing demand for adherence to regulatory standards will only see the strong companies survive, added Seth.