To strengthen its presence in the French Generics market, Zydus France SAS has entered into an agreement with Evolupharm which is the 2nd largest "Groupment" (a distribution channel with a large network of pharmacies) in France.

According to the company release, the agreement creates additional distribution strength for Zydus France by providing an access to 2250 more pharmacists and supplements its existing marketing force. Zydus France SAS currently markets 76 generic presentations and expects to launch 30 products over the next two years. The French Generics market valued at 1.5 billion Euro is growing at the rate of 24% per annum.

At the same time, the group has accepted an attractive offer of 7mn Euros from Aerocid of France for 29 products in the branded business of Zydus France SAS. These were non-core assets for the Zydus group and were originally acquired from Alpharma of France in 2003 for a price of 3.7 million Euros. The products are a combination of mature prescription and OTC products.

Citing strategic reasons for the decision, Zydus Cadila's Chairman and Managing Director, Pankaj R. Patel said, "We have identified the pure generics business as one of the key growth drivers in our global business operations and we want to focus on this. We see several opportunities for growth in the French Generics market that we would like to aggressively pursue and therefore have decided not to have a divided focus in this key market. The decision allows us to sharpen our focus on the generics business and add value to it. We are very positive about increasing our penetration of the market on the back of our distribution agreement with Evolupharm and our pipeline from India."

Over the last two years, Zydus Cadila has made significant progress in establishing the generics business in France following its entry into the market with 43 generic presentations in 2004. The group's formulation manufacturing facilities at Moraiya and API manufacturing facility at Dabhasa have been approved by AFFSAPS, the French Regulatory Agency, thus clearing the way for generics to be manufactured in India. This is likely to bring in significant cost advantage to the group's business operations.

The process of developing dossiers in India for submissions in France received a boost last year with the approval of Sertraline capsules 25 mg and 50 mg. It has filed 7 dossiers during the year and plans to file 15 more by 2007. In 2005-06, Zydus France had launched three blockbuster products Simvastatin in the cardiovascular segment, Omeprazole in the gastrointestinal segment and Sertaline in CNS segment. The group has filed 4 site transfers so far, of which 3 have been approved. The group has more than 30 New Products and 28 Site Transfer products in pipeline which would add substantial revenue and cost competitiveness to the operations in France, added the release.