Making a foray in the US generic formulations business, Zydus Cadila announced the establishment of Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. The newly launched company will supply finished dosages formulations to the US generic market place.

Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. will be headed by Joseph Renner as the CEO. With over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Renner was earlier the chief operating officer of Sandoz-USA, previously Geneva Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the business operations during a period of impressive growth in the company’s US generic business.

The new development is in line with the various initiatives the group has undertaken in the recent months to position itself as a global pharmaceutical provider. As a first step in its strategic plan to establish operations in the US pharmaceutical market, Zydus Cadila had earlier set up Zydus Healthcare LLC, a US based company focused on sales of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API’s) in 2002.

With the creation of Zydus Pharmaceuticals Inc., the group will now be best placed to leverage its strength in both API’s and generic formulations and effectively participate in the world’s largest generic market place, where future opportunities will be driven by an expected 40 billion in branded drugs going off patent over the next five years.

Commending on the announcement Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila said, “Significant effort and progress has already been made to realize plans to grow revenues from the overseas regulated markets. These efforts have been accelerated with the setting up of Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. We are now best placed to cater to the US generic market in terms of both API and generic formulations.”

Zydus Cadila filed 12 API Drug Master Files (DMFs) and 2 finished dosage ANDAs with the US FDA. The group further plans to file 7 more DMFs and 6 ANDAs by the end of this financial year.

In addition to the focused US initiative, the group has already started operations in Europe, Zydus Cadila has a ready base in France with the acquisition of Alpharma France in 2003 and future entries in Germany, Spain and Italy are in the offing.