Pfizer, Cipla may ink manufacturing, supply pact

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Cipla in drug supply talks with Pfizer Nifty BSE | NSE 10/02/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Pfizer may join hands with Cipla to strengthen its established products business unit that sells off-patent drugs. Will the two companies that are poles apart come together? Pharma Asia News' Vikas Dandekar and CNBC-TV18's Avni Raja report.

India's largest drugmaker Cipla is talking to the world's largest drugmaker Pfizer for a manufacturing and supply pact.

If the deal takes shape, Cipla will use its manufacturing plants to help Pfizer bolster its product pipeline - particularly, its established products business unit that has sales over USD 10 billion.  But will such a deal benefit both companies?

There have been other comprehensive deals with Indian companies like Aurobindo and Claris - while Aurobindo is to manufacture and supply oral and injectable drugs, Claris will be used by Pfizer for about 15 injectable critical care and hospital products.

Pfizer has expertise in niche categories like inhalation devices and drug delivery technologies. Though cipla management has not confirmed areas for collaborations, experts view that the respiratory segment may be useful to Pfizer to market more generic drugs in developed and emerging markets.

Says David Simmons, President of Established Products Business, Pfizer, "We are open to more collaborations with Indian companies but the partners have to meet high quality benchmarks."

Meanwhile, Cipla has been expanding its existing capacities to cater to its global generic partners. It has plants spread out all over India from Goa to Sikkim.