The European pharma major AstraZeneca has shelved its entire proposed new product launches in Indian market till 2008. The company, which was otherwise getting ready for introducing around 10 products including new drugs in its patent fold by early 2005 in India when the IPR law gets into force, has now decided to postpone the launches till another two to three years from the supposed beginning of the IPR regime in the country.

Talking about Astra's new stand on Indian market, Kumud Sampath, president, AstraZeneca R&D India, said that the decision to suspend the new product launches in the country is due to uncertainties the company anticipates in the Indian IPR policy. "Since the company is not very confident that the country's policy would provide adequate protection to intellectual property rights and the market exclusivity to patented products, we have resorted to a wait and see strategy till 2008," she added.

AstraZeneca Pharma India is a market leader in local anesthetics with xylocaine at present. The company recently launched Symbicort Turbuhaler, a new combination therapy for the treatment of asthma, in India.

However, the company has taken the decision to scale-up their operations in India with the expansion of their Process R&D group in Bangalore. This expansion aims at building up a fresh R&D team of up to 50 more scientists plus associated support staff for Process R&D. The planned investment will extend the recently built state-of-the art R&D facility at Bangalore, to provide new Process R&D laboratories with the required scale-up facilities and associated equipment.

This co-location of the Discovery and Process R&D scientists will help AstraZeneca to maximize the scientific interactions and enable shared use of the R&D infrastructure. With the establishment of Discovery R&D and the Process R&D centers here, the India operations of AstraZeneca will now include the discovery phase R&D, process R&D, manufacturing facility and marketing division (ISMO) at Bangalore.