Ranbaxy Laboratories' one of the latest and much talked about launches, Romilast, in the anti-asthma segment received an abysmally low response on prescription as the doctors are still not convinced about the 'claimed' efficacy of the brand. This montelukast sodium preparations, available in 10mg film coated tablet and 4mg/5mg mouth dissolving tablet forms, was launched by the company in February 2002.

Ranbaxy was the first company to receive approval for launching the anti-asthma compound- montelukast in India. Montelukast is the top selling asthma controller drug with a worldwide sales of around US$ 1 billion and a market growth of over 25 per cent. The original compound belongs to Merck & Company and marketed in different countries as 'Singular' Tablets.

The drug, which claims to be equivalent to sudden relief inhalers to asthma patients in emergency condition, learnt to have shown very slow response in majority of patients and zero response in many. "Even when it was put on trial on regular patients, the response what we received from the patient, especially children, was disappointing," said a leading pediatrician in Mumbai. "Out of my eight patients, only one responded to the drug at all. And I believe this was almost the same result what other doctors also received," he added.

"I had reported the poor patient response to the company immediately after my post launch trials. The company was planning to organize a joint discussion forum for the doctors, who have been selected for the post launch trials in the intention of taking feedbacks for improvement of the dosage form. But it did not happen yet," said another doctor. " However, the company has paused the campaign for the brand for quite some time now," he said.

Interestingly, the company is yet to respond to a written query regarding this after repeated reminders. When asked about the poor medical endorsement for the brand, the sources from the company neither admitted nor denied the fact.

It may be mentioned that the brand Romilast was claimed to be one of the six mega launches of Ranbaxy in India like Cifran OD, Zanocin OD, Rofibax Gel, Raciper, and Rodera. Ranbaxy, India's largest pharmaceutical company, manufactures and markets branded generic pharmaceuticals, bulk substances and intermediates. Ranbaxy's continued focus on R&D has resulted in several approvals in developed markets and significant progress in New Drug Discovery Research. Ranbaxy's foray into Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) has led to several proprietary know-how "platform technologies" resulting in many products under developmental/commercial stages. The company is selling its products in over 100 countries and has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 25 countries and manufacturing operations in 7 countries.