Venus Remedies, a Rs. 350 crore plus pharma company, has received its first patent grant from Japan Patent Office for its novel research product 'Vancoplus' which has been designed to curb the growing bacterial resistance specially caused by the the notorious MRSA strain which is usually termed as one of the superbugs. The company intends to launch this research product in early 2015.
Currently, Vancoplus is available in emerging markets and is under registration in many countries. Venus intends to out-license Vancoplus across patent protected regions to major pharmaceutical players. This patent grant for Vancoplus is valid up to February 2026.
The market size of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the world accounts for $900 million and presently growing with CAGR of 4.8 per cent, which is estimated to reach to $1.2 billion by 2017.
Venus has also received patent for Vancoplus from US, South Africa, New Zealand and Ukraine. Vancoplus is a boon for the medical field as it is not only cost effective but it also reduces treatment time.
Having launched in the various emerging markets across the globe, Vancoplus has undergone various pre-clinical studies as per OECD guidelines; multi-centric phase III and phase IV clinical trials and efficacy is also established through a series of microbiological studies carried out as per CLSI guidelines.
During the past four decades, MRSA has evolved from a controllable nuisance into a serious public health concern. Vancoplus is the only known remedy to control MRSA, VRSA (vancomycin resistance staphylococcus aureus) and multi-drug resistant bacteria which causes meningitis, pneumonia, typhoid, septicemia, urinary tract infection, skin and skin infections and staphylococcal endocarditis. The drug restricts the expression of efflux pump and down regulates the mec A gene and PVL expression by MRSA pathogens. This enables the drug to act against resistant strains and prevent development of resistance which drastically reduces the treatment time.
Japan has a growing elderly population and high health expenditure with second largest per capita spending in the Asia Pacific region the company is hopeful of gaining a fair share of the MRSA market. MRSA is exceptionally critical to infection treatment and control in the health-care setting. MRSA has been detected at high levels in Japan.