A three-pronged strategy to increase Lupin’s presence in advanced markets was announced to shareowners by Lupin Chairman and Managing Director, Dr. Desh Bandhu Gupta at the company's 21st Annual General Meeting today.
The first pillar of this strategy is to expand the company's API business by establishing partnerships with niche players, Dr. Gupta said. Globally, Lupin already is among the most successful manufacturers of APIs in its chosen therapeutic segments, and the API business is being expanded continuously, he said.
The second pillar of this strategy, Dr. Gupta added, relates to the marketing of finished dosages in the advanced markets through marketing alliances. "This strategy has already started to bear fruit with the launch of cefuroxime axetil in partnership with Watson Pharmaceuticals," he added.
The third part of the advanced markets strategy involves the marketing of branded finished dosages, Dr. Gupta said.
According to him, Lupin’s key drivers are strong R&D, success in the markets of North America, Europe and Japan; these together account for 78% of the $350 billion global market with the US alone accounting for 33%, introduction of products with technology barriers, global competitiveness in APIs and innovative and transparent management culture.
Dr Gupta also elaborated upon Lupin's strategy in the advanced markets and India through NDDS, ANDAs and DMFs. He stated the success with NDDS with the introduction of Ceff-ER, the world’s first cephalexin once-a-day dosage. Anti-psoriasis compound shows promise and a pre-IND presentation was made to US FDA. Since anti-psoriasis is a $4-6 billion market globally, this compound has the potential to attract major licensing partners. Lupin filed an IND with India’s DCGI. Both for anti-psoriasis and anti-TB, partial funding from CSIR under the NMITLI programme. A hundred and ten patents were filed to date of which 50 have been granted. Twenty one DMFs filed in FY 2002-03 with a majority in the advanced markets of Europe and US.
He said a shift is expected in Lupin’s business mix, therapeutic mix and geographic mix in the coming years. There would be a shift in therapeutic mix in favour of other segments even as anti-TB continues to be important; cephalosporins and cardiovasculars gaining in importance.
Lupin’s current plan is 4-6 ANDA filings per year, which will be ramped up to 6-8 ANDAs per year from the next fiscal onwards. The ANDA filings will target niche opportunities, which would help Lupin capture a good share of the market.
Based on expectations of a buoyant economy on the back of a good monsoon, and keeping market forces and regulatory factors in mind, Lupin expects a growth rate of 6-7% for the industry in the next six to seven months.
Capital expenditure in FY 2002-03 was Rs. 620 million on various projects including expansion of lisinopril facility, implementation of ERP, and a new anti-TB dosage facility, among others. Lupin's capex plan for the current fiscal is Rs. 1050 million, which will be funded from internal accruals. This includes the facility in Goa, expansion of facilities for ADCA and ACCA, statins, prils and other plans such as those related to plant upgrades.