The 300-crore pharmaceutical company, Elder Pharmaceuticals, plans to in-license two cardiac drugs to market in India from a European multinational company. The in-licensing deal for the drugs is expected to be signed within 4-5 months.

The Mumbai-based company, which has identified in-licensing as a business model for growth, is also in talks with several other MNCs for signing in-licensing deal for more products in the lifestyle disease segment.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Alok Saxena, director, international business, Elder Pharma, said, "We are in talks with several MNCs for marketing agreements in which they will license out their products to market in India. The MNCs, who having no presence in India, see these collaborations as a strategy to establish their brand names in the Indian market."

Talking about the new deal, Saxena said, "Under the agreement, our partner will be providing the technology know-how and we will be manufacturing and marketing the drugs in India. Even after signing the deal, it will take another one year to start marketing in India as the phase III studies have to be conducted since these drugs are to be launched for the first time in India. We have to submit the application for the phase III trial to DCGI once the deal is finalised. The deal is expected to be signed within the next 4-5 months." However, he refused to divulge value of the deal and the name of the company.

The company has plans to in-license more drugs from the segments like diabetes, cardiology and CNS, he informed.

Recently, Elder signed a strategic marketing alliance with the Swiss pharma major TRB Chemedica to introduce a new range of osteoarthritis and pain management drugs in India. Similarly, the company had entered an exclusive marketing arrangement with Japan-based Tanabe Seiyaku & Fujisawa to market the latter's products in India.

In January last year, Elder had acquired Tobraneg, a tobramycin brand from Eli Lilly. Elder had bought the ownership of Tobraneg for India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Tobramycin, an injectable antibiotic belonging to aminoglycoside class, is an original research product by Eli Lilly.

Earlier, Pharmabiz had reported that Elder was all set to sign a deal with a Ghana-based company for setting up the JV for marketing its products in western African countries.