Dr.Reddy's looks to develop products for integrated markets

Dr.Reddy's looks to develop products for integrated markets 

Indian drugmaker Dr.Reddy’s is looking at developing products in a fashion that could not target any particular market but meet the development needs for both highly regulated as well as less regulated markets. The development of products then, may no longer be targeted to a particular market, but will look at addressing the needs of a clutch of markets.

“Differences remain between highly regulated and less regulated markets in terms of manufacturing, packaging and labeling requirements and the intensity of regulatory oversight, as well as the complexity of patent regimes. While the degree of regulation in certain markets may impact product development, we are observing increasing convergence of development needs throughout both highly regulated and less regulated markets,” the company said in its annual report.

Eventually, at the early stages of product development the company would not target a particular market, but will instead target the product towards a cluster of markets that will include both highly regulated and less regulated markets. The production processes for finished dosages are however similar, notwithstanding the target market. In many cases, the processes share common and interchangeable facilities and employee bases, and use similar raw materials.

“With the integration of all the markets where we are selling generic pharmaceuticals into our global generics segment, our front-end business strategies in various markets and our support services in India are increasingly being developed with a view to leverage our global infrastructure,” the report stated.

On the other hand, the domestic market for the company, accounted for around 15 per cent of the global generics segment’s revenues in the year ended March 2014 While, the key therapeutic categories include gastro-intestinal, cardiovascular, pain management and oncology, Dr.Reddy’s is also increasing presence in the niche areas of dermatology, urology and nephrology.

For the Russian market too their focus would be to build leading brands in gastro-intestinal, pain management, anti-infectives, respiratory, oncology and cardiovascular therapeutic areas, for prescription, over the counter and hospital sales.

For Dr.Reddy's, in the North America (the United States and Canada) market which contributes 53 per cent of the company’s global generic revenues, sales have increased significantly in recent years, partly due to an increased awareness and acceptance that generic drugs are the equivalent of brand name drugs.

“We intend to capitalize on the opportunities resulting from this expansion of the market by leveraging our product development capabilities, manufacturing capacities inspected by various international regulatory agencies and access to our own APIs, which offer significant supply chain efficiencies,” the report said.