The Mumbai based leading pharmaceutical company Lupin Ltd has announced that its subsidiary in Japan, Kyowa Pharmaceutical Industry Co Ltd, (Kyowa) received approvals for 10 products from the Ministry of Health & Labour Welfare, Japan (MHLW) and expects to launch these in July 2008 post NHI listing.

Kyowa's expanded product basket will now include 10 more products and these are amlodipine (CVS), risperidone (line extension; CNS), cabergoline (CNS), milnacipran (CNS), tandospirone (CNS), meloxicam (NSAID), fluticasone (line extension for paediatrics; anti-asthma), quazepam (line extension; CNS), ethyl Icosapentate (line extension) and maprotiline (line extension; CNS). The combined market size of these molecules in Japan is JPY 265 bn (US $2.65 billion) as per IMS 2007.

Kyowa has a strong position in the CNS and CVS segment and through additional six products in the CNS category it is further consolidating its position as an indomitable player in this segment.

Amlodipine is the largest molecule in Japan, with sales of over JPY 184 billion (US $1.84 billion) as per IMS 2007. Kyowa plans to aggressively market this product through its trained medical field force. In order to garner a dominating market share in this segment the company has also out-licensed this product to two other generic partners in Japan.

In case of Risperidone, Kyowa is currently the second largest generic player and with the recent approval for the line extension the company expects to consolidate its position in this molecule.

Expressing his pleasure at the development, Vinod Dhawan, president - Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, Lupin Ltd. said, "We expect that these newly registered molecules will significantly add to Kyowa's growth over the next few years. It is our intention to leverage the advantage of an early entry in the progressive opening up of the generic pharma market of Japan. We intend to rapidly introduce an array of generic therapies from our global portfolio".

Lupin had acquired Kyowa in October 2007 and it is currently focusing on enriching its product basket and expanding its therapy width. These fresh approvals will strengthen Lupin's position in the worlds' second largest pharmaceutical market.