The speciality division of United Biotech has entered into a five-year exclusive in-licensing agreement for Swedish firm Recip AB's dialysis sparing amino acid tablets.

According to RK Dewan, VP - marketing "Aminess-N is a dialysis sparing amino acid tablets and is highly beneficial for patients with weak renal system or with underlying renal diseases. Amines-N taken regularly reduces the need for frequent dialysis and also delays the need for dialysis in renal patients. It improves serum albumin levels, is safe in improving nutritional status of patients with renal diseases, is cost effective and improves the quality of life for all renal patients. A Renal Dietician's greatest challenge today is meeting the patient's nutritional needs and improving the quality of life. Aminess-N helps meet both of these requirements.

Recip AB is already a household name in the United States for their "Thyrocare tablets" and we are excited to work together with a quality conscious manufacturer like Recip AB. This will afford us the chance to enter the niche Indian nephrology segment market worth Rs 300 crore of which Amino acids contributes to about Rs 50 crore. We will aim to capture atleast 20 per cent share of the market for Amino acids and also enter the nephrology segment with a basket of products both in licensed and locally manufactured", he added.

The company claims that several studies have indicated that supplementing the diet of hemodialysis patients with a composition of essential amino acids (Aminess N), leads to increase in serum albumin levels. Studies conducted have also shown that a lowered serum albumin level correlates with increased mortality and morbidity in this group of patients. Serum albumin, often referred to simply as albumin, is the most abundant plasma protein in humans and other mammals. Albumin is essential for maintaining the osmotic pressure needed for proper distribution of body fluids between intravascular compartments and body tissues; decreased serum albumin may result either in liver disease or kidney disease, which allows albumin to escape into the urine. Decreased albumin may also be explained by malnutrition or a low protein diet and a large percentage of all hemodialysis patients have abnormally low concentration of albumin in the blood.