Lupin Limited and its French Regulatory agent Venipharm announced that Lupin has received the marketing approval for generic cefpodoxime proxetil 100mg tablets in France. Cefpodoxime proxetil is a cephalosporin antibiotic used to treat a variety of bacterial infections.

Lupin's cefpodoxime proxetil tablets would be the generic equivalent of sanofi-aventis's Orelox tablets. Sales of Orelox tablets in France are close to Euro 75m as per IMS and the patent expiry is August 2007. The French market is the biggest European market for cefpodoxime proxetil, a Lupin press release stated.

"This is the first generic approval in France for cefpodixime proxetil and Lupin's first significant approval in Europe. We will work with our partners to ensure launch of this generic upon patent expiry. We expect a number of other such approvals in Europe in the coming months," said Dr Kamal Sharma, managing director, Lupin Ltd.

Lupin Ltd. is a leading pharmaceutical company with strong research focus. It has a programme for developing New Chemical Entities. The company has state-of-the-art R&D centre in Pune. The company is a leading global player in anti-TB, Cephalosporins (anti-infectives) and Cardiovascular drugs (prils and statins) and has a notable presence in the areas of diabetology, NSAIDS and Asthma.

For the nine-month period ended December 2006, the company's revenues and profit after tax were Rs 14,985 million (US$ 335 million) and Rs 1,650 million (US$ 37 million) respectively.