Pharmaceutical Technologist - November 2007 - (Page 32)

SETTING STANDARDS Leading the pack Lessons learned from the top Profile: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Life isn’t so relaxing at the top. Ranking first among Indian pharmaceutical companies, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (Hyderabad) is in itself a model that a lot of companies in the Indian industry have either drawn inspiration from or at best imitated. Since 1986, when the company started as an API producer, until today as a $1 billion-plus fully integrated company, Dr Reddy’s is one of India’s true multinationals. Like most of the country’s life-science powerhouses, the company has expanded its know-how from APIs to formulations but has also put the emphasis on two elements that make the company a genuine leader: global approach and innovation. A year after inception, the firm was already selling APIs to Europe and rapidly establishing manufacturing bases in Russia and the Middle East. In 1994, Dr Reddy’s entered the US generic market and set up a manufacturing facility there. Meanwhile, strong efforts were made to increase R&D, with the notable creation of a state-of-the-art laboratory in Atlanta (GA, USA). In 1997, the company filed its first abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) and from then on, experienced a number of successes. Dr Reddy’s was the first Indian company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the first to launch the generic drug fluoxetine (a generic version of Eli Lilly’s Prozac). The company expanded by acquiring distribution players in the UK, API producers in India, and Germany’s fourth largest generic manufacturer, Betapharm (Augsburg). It established Auriegene Discovery Technologies (Bangalore), a contract research company, in 2002, a move that was intended to help Dr Reddy’s learn more about drug discovery through contract research. In time, the company became a one-stop shop for the global industry and put together its Custom Pharmaceutical Services (CPS). As explained by G.V. Prasad, the company’s vice-chairman and CEO, “CPS is focused on innovators to get their innovations to market much faster. We have a large experience in sensitive organic chemistry, formulation development and GMP manufacturing, and we use these skills to help biotechs, as well as large pharmas to quickly take their innovation to registration stage and then follow on with manufacturing We started 4 years ago and should generate more than $130 million out of it for this year.” Within the industry, innovation is the real goal, and being the first Indian player to register a new chemical entity (NCE) is the end game. “We have the highest research budget in India and we have done a lot in the discovery area, process area, and formulation area,” said Prasad. “We have a strong discovery pipeline, so I would believe we are a research organization Dr Reddy’s has always done things ahead of the curve. If a company is to succeed, it should not imitate but truly innovate.” With a successful foray into the international market (Dr Reddy’s sales in the US alone reached $548 million in 2006), it might be time for the company to focus on India’s growing potential. The company is going to have to fight hard to maintain its top position. A quick review of the country’s talents and endeavors shows a number of companies catching up to Dr Reddy’s, demonstrating that it’s not always comfortable being number one. PT G.V. Prasad 32 November 2007 l pharmaceutical technologist Photo Courtesy of Dr.Reddy’s http://www.ecreviews.com

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Pharmaceutical Technologist Contents Editor's Comment News Morpheus Feeling the Pressure Legal Crusaders The Holy-Grail of Start-Up Biotech Special Feature Q&A

Pharmaceutical Technologist - November 2007

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