Karnataka's Micro Labs and Juggat Pharma have issued instructions to their manufacturing plants to stop the production of the controversial rofecoxib brands with immediate effect. The two companies took action even before receiving any directions from the Drugs Control General of India in this regard.

"We have already instructed to immediately halt the production of our brand Rofica and would pull out products in the market once DCGI orders were received," stated G Jayaraj, general manager, products Micro Labs.

Micro is already in the process of alerting the medical practitioners to stop prescription of the drug. No details were disclosed on Micro's efforts to handle the loss of revenue from Rofica. "It is too early to give a direction on the company's intention for the future," stated Jayaraj. For Micro, Rofica generated sales to the tune of a little over Rs 40 lakh a month, which sums up as a Rs 5-crore annual brand.

At Juggat Pharma, the rofecoxib brand 'Monro,' generating sales to the tune of Rs 4-6 lakh, has been withdrawn. Ever since media reports highlighted a possible ban on the sale of rofecoxib formulations in the country, the company had an internal meeting where they seriously contemplated the withdrawal of the brand because of the fear of drug reactions during prolonged use," stated Sunil Chipunkar, marketing and training manager, Juggat Pharma.

Although the company initially adopted a 'wait and watch' policy, it was sceptical all the way about the brand. Hence it developed a blueprint for Monro to modify the brand name and withdraw rofecoxib, which will be completely by introducing a safe and effective old molecule, informed Chipunkar.

Early this week, after Merck's announcement of a voluntary pull out of its brand Vioxx, both Juggat and Micro adopted a short-duration prescription mode to market the product. The two companies were convinced by the scientific proofs which indicated that rofecoxib when prescribed for prolonged use to chronic cases of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis was harmful. However, the companies stood by the fact that for short duration, it was harmless.

The two companies are now working out strategies to cope with the fall in sales to the company from the rofecoxib brands. While Micro expects a decline in sales of around 40 per cent, for Juggat it would not have that much of an impact because it is a low value-add for the company.

Meanwhile, doctors from Sagar Apollo, Manipal and a section of private medical practitioners in Bangalore stated that any long-term use of Cox-2 inhibitors was not recommended. The ban of rofecoxib brands would not affect their prescription mode as there were equally powerful brands in the market.

Sources from the industry stated that with imminent signs of the withdrawal of rofecoxib brands, Merck had achieved its game plan to kill a superior molecule before it launched its novel molecule in the market.