Moneycontrol » News » Business » Earnings

Working on cancer, diabetes molecule trials: Piramal Life

Published on Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 14:36 | Source : CNBC-TV18

Updated at Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 14:45

2012 Investors following Study Abroad. Share this News with them.

Share on Tumblr

Swati Piramal, Director, Piramal Life Sciences

Excerpts from Midcap Radar on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

ALSO READ

Piramal Life

BSE | NSE 31/05/12

Are Mutual Funds betting on Piramal Life?

Pharma major Piramal Life Sciences declared its first quarter results.

Commenting on the company's future plans, Swati Piramal, the company's director, said three cancer molecules were in Phase II trials. "These trials are going on in India, US and Australia," she added.

Also Read: Piramal Life starts Phase I trial on diabetes drug

Piramal further said all diabetes molecules were in Phase I trials. "We have an alliance with Lilly and we have one product of our own."

As of now, the company had no out-licensing revenues, according to Piramal.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Swati Piramal on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: While we would like to know your sales and net loss number, could you tell us more about what is the progress of various molecules? Have you reached a stage where you have got any milestone payments? Could you take us through the trajectory of the various products that your company is working with?

A: We are working in four areas: Cancer, inflammation, diabetes and infection. If you take the first one, which is cancer, we have three products that are in three Phase-II trials for our lead molecule, which is P276 and these trials are going on in India, US and Australia. Then we have some combination of our drugs with radiation, two of which are going on in India. They all are on track.

Then second area is inflammation where we have three products in Phase-II, which are phyto-pharmaceuticals. Then, for diabetes, we have an alliance with Lilly and we have one product of our own. Those are all in Phase-I. One is crossing over to Phase-II in The Netherlands just a few months ago.

Q: And the Oncology products are in Phase-II?

A: Yes. They are all progressing quite well. We think we are on track. In Oncology, we have three Phase-II studies going on all over the world.

Q: When you last spoke to us, you said that you are expecting your first product launch in 2011. Is that expectation still intact and until then you were expecting some in-licencing revenues? Could you take us through the revenue picture because when you got demerged, I think you got around Rs 90-95 crore? How have revenues kept pace thereafter, did you get any licencing revenues?

A: Well, no. At the moment we are doing exports of our phyto-pharmaceutical compounds. But that is quite small right now. Our revenues will be better when we are able to cross Phase-II in Oncology, where we can show proof of concept. And, in diabetes again, at the end of Phase-II perhaps we will be able to show revenues. We expect that to be, again as I said, 2011. We are still on track for that.

Q: If I have got this correct, you've got 13 molecules in your NCE pipeline. Could you tell us, out of these 13 molecules how many have reached clinical Phase-III, and how many of these are actually being done in the US market? If they are India of course we are assuming all these are in India anyway?

A: No, they are not in fact. We have USFDA approval for our oncology molecule. We have European approval for our diabetes molecule. We have Australian approval for our cancer molecule and Canadian approval for two of our cancer molecules.

So, we are a global company, we are doing global clinical trials as well as India. Very often we do a slightly different study in Canada and a different one in India so that we can run two studies very fast, and very quick.

In the US, Canada and The Netherlands, the approval time is only 28 days whereas in India it is six months. So, where we lose in regulation we make up in terms of patients.

Q: You are still in Phase-II. How are you so confident that in 2012 you go through Phase-III and into commercialisation? Could you put down a number on how much you are spending till the time you start getting the first set of revenues? What is your annual expenditure on all this?

A: Our annual expenditure is around Rs 100 crore. So, we have spent a lot of money finding new drugs. The thing is that in cancer unlike any other disease, the number of new drugs atleast in India are very few and abroad as well they are very few. It is very hard to find a cancer drug.

One real reason why we have taken cancer is that the number of patients required is not that many, like you do in diabetes. So, we are able to find affordable drugs at a much lower price if we look at oncology as a therapeutic area.

Q: When the Finance Minister was talking in his press conference, he was talking about billions of dollars being spent. Rs 100 crore, you have got 13 molecules in the pipeline. Could you just work the numbers out for us? How is Rs 100 crore taking care of 13 molecules in the pipeline?

A: Yes, you see that is India's big advantage. What the west can do in USD 1 billion, my bet is that we can do for USD 50-100 million. We are one-tenths that of the west. There is a very famous saying everywhere that I have been propagating for the last 10 years that India can be the leader in medicines in the world, because our costs are one-tenth. No one believes us till we actually do it.

Q: But you are still running these tests in the US. So, it doesn't matter whether you are an Indian or European company or a US company. It costs the same to run a clinical trial.

A: Yes, but we are very good at it. We do Phase-I in the US and then we do Phase-II and Phase-III in India. The reason is that in Phase-I in the US they take only 28 days. So, I can quickly get my studies started. It is a smaller number of patients in Phase-I. When I need a large number of patients I bring into India. This strategy has worked very well because our regulator is also very happy that the USFDA has approved and therefore they can quickly give us approval. In India, Phase-I is very hard to do because we don't have the capacity of our regulators.

Q: When do you expect to post your first profit numbers?

A: We are shooting for 2011-12. It takes 10-12 years. There is no shortcut to this.

Set email Alert for Piramal Life