MUMBAI - Cipla Ltd, the Indian drugmaker that built a $1 billion business making generic HIV treatments, aims to sell copies of Roche Holding AG's and Amgen Inc's best-selling biotechnology medicines with a partner in China.
Cipla Chairman Yusuf Hamied plans to invest in companies in India and Hong Kong that make so-called monoclonal antibodies. The technology will enable Mumbai-based Cipla to gain access to products modeled on Roche's Avastin and Herceptin cancer drugs and Amgen's rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel, Hamied said.
The three medications generated $19 billion in sales last year. Cipla, India's third-largest drugmaker by revenue, intends to sell its versions cheaper, making them more affordable. The same strategy of copying medicines developed by others helped the 75-year-old company become one of the largest suppliers of AIDS pills for developing nations.
"Avastin, Enbrel, Herceptin - these are all being marketed today, but the prices are very high," said Hamied, whose father founded the company in 1935, on Tuesday. "We will have biosimilars for them."
Cipla advanced 1.5 percent to 343 rupees in early morning trade in Mumbai, while the benchmark Sensitive index added 0.5 percent.
Hamster ovaries
Biotechnology drugs are made from proteins synthesized in living cells such as yeast and hamster ovaries. They are more complex, difficult to make and pricier than traditional pharmaceuticals, which consist of comparatively simple chemical compounds. Other Indian companies are expanding into this area.
Biocon Ltd, India's biggest biotechnology company, signed an agreement a year ago with Mylan Inc to develop, make and market generic biologic drugs. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, India's second-biggest drugmaker, said in 2007 it began selling a version of the cancer medicine rituximab at about half the price of Roche's original, called Rituxan.
Under an agreement with Shanghai-based partner Desano Pharma, Cipla will have the right to market the biosimilars in India and overseas, Hamied said.
Cipla will invest $65 million over three years buying 40 percent of a company based in the west Indian city of Goa and a 25 percent stake in a Hong Kong-based biotechnology company, Cipla said in a statement on Tuesday.
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