Aurobindo Pharma sees $2 bn sales in next 3 years

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Aurobindo Pharma has inaugurated a Rs 150 crore drug manufacturing plant at its pharma SEZ in Hyderabad. It expects revenues to hit USD 2 billion by 2013. But what is the road ahead for the company in terms of expansion? What is the future of the licensing agreement Aurobindo has with Pfizer to sell generic drugs in 70 emerging countries and developed markets? PharmaAsiaNews' Vikas Dandekar spoke to the top honchos of both drug-makers about their plans.

Two very important meetings, one with David Simmons, Pfizer's Established Products Business Unit (EPBU) President, who was visiting India and Ramaprasad Reddy, a person who has been very reticent - never on record, have expressed very strong conviction to their partnership as far as sourcing of formulations are concerned.

David Simmons says Pfizer is very bullish about sourcing products from India. What we have seen from Aurobindo and Claris Life Sciences may not be the end of it, probably Pfizer is still scanning companies at least to collaborate. I also put a question on biosimilars and what their strategy will be? It appears that spade work is still being done. There are lot of rumours about Pfizer buying stake in companies which probably is a little premature, but some amount of interest is definitely there in looking at companies, definitely from India.

As far as Aurobindo is concerned, the company has remained quiet for such a long time. It's the first time that I have spoken to Ramaprasad Reddy. USD 2 billion is what the company is aiming to achieve in the next three calendar years. That is quite a strong growth going forward. Pfizer's association will be a very key point.

Apart from that, the company will be looking at expanding into several other geographies. In Europe, it is very strongly present. The number of product filings for the next year is like to be 8 products a month, so that will be nearly 100 for the whole year. This is quite a lot and in terms of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Backward integration is where the company has scored well over other generic plays. So, a very strong future for both these companies and the association going forward.