Drug R&D spending fell in 2010, and heading lower

The global drug industry cut its research spending for the first time ever in 2010 and the pace of decline looks set to quicken this year. Expenditure on discovering and developing new medicines  estimated to be  $68 billion  in 2010, down nearly 3 percent on the $70 billion spent in both 2008 and 2009, according to Thomson Reuters. 

Since 2000,  investment by drug companies   for NCE  is almost  80 percent of the industry's total R&D  spend  which has increased by more 50 percent ,  but output of  NCE has actually gone down. Last year ,  21  NCE were launched on the global market against 26 in 2009.

 Between 2008 and 2010 there were 55 terminations of projects that had already reached the final Phase III stage of clinical testing, more than double the level of 2005-07, reflecting the growing difficulty of developing new drugs that are better than existing ones.

India looses one rank in world competitiveness

India slipped one rank, to 32nd position in overall competitiveness among 59 nations, according to the ‘World Competitiveness Rankings’

The recovery of financial markets pushed the US and Hong Kong to first two  places, followed by last year’s topper, Singapore, which fell to third spot. In 2010, the US and Hong Kong ranked second and third, respectively.  Sweden jumped to fourth, from sixth and Germany came sixth

China,  slipped one rank, to 19th and Japan went up one rank to 26th slot .  Though India’s ranking is below the midway mark, it still did better than Indonesia (37) Philippines (41), Brazil (44) and Russia (49).

Glenmark in licensing deal with Sanofi

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals signed a  licensing agreement   with Sanofi  where the prior company is  expected to receive  USD 613 million  in addition to  royalties on sales  for the   molecule - GBR500 which is  used  for treatment of Crohn's disease .

 Under the deal, Sanofi will have exclusive marketing rights for North America, Europe, Japan, Argentina, China and Uruguay  while   both the companies would co-market in Russia, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. 
Glenmark will retain exclusive marketing rights in India and other countries in the rest of the world.

Solvay to Acquire Rhodia

Solvay has agreed to acquire Rhodia for €3.4 billion in cash and  expects to close the deal in late August 2011 subject to antitrust approval both  in Europe and the U.S. The merged entity will retain Solvay’s name.

The merged company will have combined sales of more than  €12 billion/year.  Solvay posted sales of €7.1 billion and Rhodia posted sales of €5.23 billion in 2010. About 40% of combined sales will be in emerging markets.  Solvay expects transaction should create synergies leading to annualized cost savings of €250 million within three years.

About 90% of the combined company's sales will be generated by businesses in which it has a top-three position worldwide. In Solvay's case, these businesses include specialty polymers, soda ash, and hydrogen peroxide. For Rhodia these include silica, rare earths, surfactants, acetate and nylon-6,6 engineering plastics. 

CW

NPPA Revised prices for Medicines

Prices of 62 drugs, mainly used for treating diabetes and tuberculosis, have been raised while the rates of 14 other medicines have been reduced  ,  prices of 21 drugs have remained unchanged after a fresh review of the pricing of key medicines by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

The NPPA, which considered rates for 19 drugs for the first time, reviewed prices of drugs used in treatment of diabetes, allergy, malaria, diarrhoea, asthma and hypertension along with antiseptics.

The NPPA also revised prices of four bulk drugs, following which diuretic spironolactone and salbutamol sulphate will be cheaper by 2.5 per cent and 18.87 per cent respectively.

According to it, bulk drug pyrantel pamoate (used in formulations of deworming medicines) and anti-allergic pheniramine maleate will be costlier by 8.12 per cent and 13.87 per cent respectively.

The reduction in prices of formulation drugs has been in the range of 2.47 per cent to 35.04 per cent from the prices claimed by the respective companies.

The price revision included more than 25 anti-TB drugs for which there was no significant increase while sulphadoxine plus pyrimethamine tablets will cost more due to upward revision in the import price of bulk drugs used for malaria.

Gujarat leads in growth among the Indian states.

Gujarat has leaped ahead of other Indian states in growth, whereas the states in South India are witnessing a slump in growth, according to a report.  Gujarat has witnessed growth at the rate of 11 per cent as compared to the all Indian growth average of nine per cent, states the report by Mckinsey & Co.
In the recent years (2005-10), the real GDP growth in Gujarat has been 11.3 per cent as against 11 per cent in Haryana, 9.6 per cent in Bihar, 8.5 per cent in Karnataka, 8.1 per cent in Kerala and 7.4 per cent each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Gujarat has achieved leadership in the chemicals industry, with 35 per cent share of all investments in this sector over the past five years. Industry leaders attribute the slump in the South Indian region to factors such as rising land prices, significant shortage in the availability of skilled  labour, infrastructure bottlenecks including port capacity and growing urban congestion in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, for the slump.