Zenotech to invest Rs 90 Cr in R&D
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 15 October 2007, 19:30 IST
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Hyderabad: Zenotech Laboratories, a Hyderabad based generic biopharmaceutical company, is set to invest over Rs 90 crore to strengthen its R&D pipeline. "We plan to focus completely on R&D and drug development and pump in over Rs 90 crore in these areas. We plan to raise our abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA) basket from 18 biological drugs to 45," Jay Chigurupathi, MD, Zenotech, told Economic Times. Zenotech has already filed for 18 abbreviated ANDAs in the US with Ranbaxy. An ANDA is an application for a US generic drug approval for an existing licensed medication. The company tied up its investment plans after Ranbaxy raised its stake from 7 percent to 45 percent in the entity. Ranbaxy picked up a 22 percent stake from the promoter's shareholding, valued at about Rs 126 crore. It was also given a preferential share allotment of 16 percent, valued at Rs 88 crore. Ranbaxy's total fund infusion in Zenotech worked to Rs 214 crore. The company is targeting a third of the world's $60-billion biotech drug market, with a pipeline of 10 new biologicals as well. "We will partner with Ranbaxy to market some of these drugs in the EU and US, while the remaining will be licenced to other multi-national firms for marketing them worldwide. The revenue from products licenced to other companies will be shared with Ranbaxy," he said. Of the 10 new biological entities in the pipeline, at least 4 products have a market size of over $3 billion globally. The plan is to launch two new drugs every year from this kitty. The company has lined up one product each for immuno-suppressants, neurology and cardiology. Zenotech is working on three biologicals for rheumatoid arthritis and 11 in the oncology space including. The oncology market is estimated to grow from $28 billion in 2007 to about $65 billion by 2010. So the company plans to introduce as many as four products by then to service this market.

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