Dishman buys Solvay fine chemicals

Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals has made another incursion into European assets by signing a memorandum of understanding to acquire the fine chemicals, vitamin D and vitamin D analogues business of Solvay Pharmaceuticals at Veeenendaal, Netherlands। The deal is expected to close within four months। Dishman added that the acquisition”will not only increase the basket of products of Dishman but also bring in new customer relationships”.

Indications are that vitamin D3 production will be transferred to India, thus bringing more fine chemicals expertise there, while the other products will remain in the Netherlands. For Solvay, the sale of the two businesses will enable it to focus more on its core areas of cardio-metabolic and neuroscience treatments.

More importantly, Dishman’s existing contract under to supply about 90 tonnes/year of the API for Teveten (Eprosartan Mesylate), Solvay’s anti-hypertensive drug, will not change. The contract expires in December 2008, but can be renewed annually until its patent protection ends in 2013. Since an FDA inspection at its Bavla site in 2006, Dishman has been able to supply this API for use in the US as well as Europe.Separately, Dishman has announced the integration of another of its previous European acquisitions, SynProTec DCR of the UK, into CarboGen-Amcis.

SynProTec DCR specialises in process research and custom synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates and has capacity of up to 4,500 litres for production of early phase APIs and large-scale intermediates. Griffiths said that capacity combined capacity will increase and material produced at SynProTec DCR can be further processed at CarboGen Amcis’s Swiss facilities.

Safety & driving: Driving in flood waters

• If you live in an area where flooding may occur, move your vehicle to higher ground if flooding is expected. As well as the risk of damage to your vehicle by leaving it in a flooded area, it may also be a hazard or cause obstruction to emergency services.
• Do not drive unless your journey is absolutely necessary.
• If you have to drive in a flooded area take care. Do not attempt to drive through water if you are unsure of the depth.
• Don't drive through fast-moving water, such as at a flooded bridge approach – your car could be swept away
• Drive slowly and steadily to avoid creating a bow wave, and allow on-coming traffic to pass first.
• Keep the engine revving by slipping the clutch otherwise water in the exhaust could stall the engine.
• Modern vehicles are fitted with catalytic converters in the exhaust system. The catalyst normally works at high temperatures and may crack if it is submerged in water. Replacement catalysts are expensive.
• The air intake on many modern cars is located low down at the front of the engine bay and it only takes a small quantity of water sucked into the engine to cause serious damage. All engines are affected but turbo-charged and diesel engines are most vulnerable.
• Be considerate – driving through water at speeds above a slow crawl can result in water being thrown onto pavements, soaking pedestrians or cyclists.
  
• If your car stalls, immediately abandon it and climb to higher ground. Watch your footing. Just six inches of fast-moving flood water can sweep a person off his or her feet.
• Test your brakes as soon as you can after driving through water.
• If the vehicle has been stood in the flooded area for any prolonged period contact your local dealer for further advice.
• If the vehicle has only been in a flood for a short period, drive with extreme caution and take the car to be checked at the earliest opportunity.

Loosing battle- The patent issue

The global pharmaceutical giants are increasingly getting drawn into a tangle of expensive legal challenges and strong opposition from governments of developing countries over safety of drugs and patent protection they have been enjoying for years.

These governments are also being pressurized by several patient groups and social organizations to take tough stand against pharmaceutical giants over monopoly prices. No industry is facing this kind animosity from its consumers and governments these days.

The crux of the issue is the pricing of patented drugs. Most advanced drugs for cancer, HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders are under patent and are blockbusters with very high price tags. As most of these life style diseases are also affecting middle class and poor people today their monopoly prices obviously come under public scrutiny. The governments of developing countries cannot ignore suffering of millions of their people afflicted by these deadly diseases when the drugs for such ailments are being sold at highly unaffordable prices.

This is exactly what has happened in Thailand & Brazil and is likely to happen in India too. The Thai government issued compulsory licenses on three drugs a few months ago. That allowed Thailand to import affordable, safe and effective generic versions of the patented drugs from other countries or produce them on their own through their Government Pharmaceutical Company. The first license was issued on November 29, 2006 for the HIV/AIDS medicine, efavirenz a patented drug of Merck and sold by the brand name of Storcin. This was followed by additional compulsory licenses on January 26, for the heart disease drug clopidogrel, a patented drug of sanofi-aventis which sells it by the brand name of Plavix and another HIV/AIDS drug, lopinavir/ritonavir sold by Abbott under the brand name Kaletra.

Thailand has made very clear to the global pharmaceutical industry that it will continue to break patents until prices for AIDS medication come down significantly. Thailand's action was followed by Brazil with the President signing a decree awarding compulsory licensing for efavirenz early this year. It is quite possible that India may also go for compulsory licensing route in case of Gleevec to make available this cancer medication affordable to several lakhs of Indian patients. Novartis is engaged in a court case over its patent.

Officials in India's health ministry are seriously considering this option in the wake of the widespread support to Thailand's steps and pressure from the public interest groups in India.Top pharmaceutical companies are furious over these developments. But they are helpless as powerful patient groups and NGOs in the US and Europe are also getting extremely vocal on monopoly pricing of essential drugs.

It is true that compulsory licensing is meant to be used only as a last resort and TRIPS allow it under limited circumstances, such as national health emergencies, and after lengthy efforts to negotiate prices with firms. And most of these life style diseases are hitting the populations like epidemics leaving no options to the governments but to act fast. That apart, a large number of patent claims for drugs are for incremental innovation. There is no justification for patent authorities to grant a 20-year patent when the product is nothing new in terms of efficacy and safety.

Ongoing patent litigations over Lipitor, Caduet, Gleevec and many others are over the novelty issue. The global pharmaceutical industry should therefore realize that their pricing of so called patented products need to be on the basis of realistic costs and reasonable profits. Otherwise, the whole edifice of patent system in pharmaceutical industry may collapse.

pharma Biz