Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the country, is known to be betting high on the future prospects of specialty areas like new chemical entities and novel drug delivery systems.

The company intends to turn specialty business sector as one of its major revenue drivers by 2012. With one of its drug candidate entering phase I clinical trial stage and three others under going pre-clinical trials this year, Sun Pharma is already into serious R&D business, says Dr Amarjit singh, director, R&D, Sun Pharma Limited.

In an exclusive interaction with pharmabiz, Dr Singh said that the development of site-specific release technology (Oral - Crystalized Proteins, Alkermes - PLG microspheres, DepoMed - GR System, Pulmonary: Acusphere - microspheres, Alkermes -Air microparticles, Vaginal, Rectal, Skin) promises a great future for Indian companies.

Commenting on the future trends, Dr Singh pointed out that Indian companies are to depend less on formulation business in the coming days. The trend is already visible. If it was formulations that drove the business in Year 2000, with a little bit of support from APIs and generics, 2004 saw generics leading the way. While more than 40 per cent of the business volumes of major Indian companies came from generic exports, it was just 30 per cent from formulation. The significant change was the role specialty drugs had begun to play. While it was almost non-existent in 2000, in 2004, specialty drug category has contributed 5 per cent of Indian pharma business. By 2008, it is expected that specialty segment is to grow to 16 per cent. Generics will continue to enjoy 36 per cent. By 2012, 42 per cent of Indian business is to come from specialty business. Generics will contribute to another 42 per cent with less business coming from formulation market.

Sun Pharma may have 30 to 40 per cent of its business turnover from research-based products by 2008, he said.

The company's first research center, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Center (SPARC), was set up in 1993 in Baroda. A research campus is being built in Baroda to work entirely on innovation-based projects. In the first phase, a drug discovery initiative is taking shape in 3 specific therapy areas. A Rs 40 crore investment has been committed towards projects in new chemical entities and novel drug delivery systems. A second research centre was set up in 1997 in Mumbai to develop innovative dosage forms and generics for the developed markets in Europe and US.

Sun Pharma has made it official that about 30 per cent of its current research budget is allocated to innovation-based projects. The company has also said that this was expected to exceed 70 per cent over the next three years. The third quarter (ended December 2004) results of Sun Pharma had shown an increase in its net profit (by 14.6%) to Rs 80.72 crore from Rs 70.46 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its sales increased by 22.8 per cent to Rs 292.58 crore from Rs 238.27 crore. Consolidated R&D expenses for the nine months period reached at Rs 101.17 crore and came to 9.8 per cent of its turnover.