Venus eyes South African antibiotic resistance market
The exclusive marketing rights agreement between Venus Remedies and South Africa's second largest pharmaceutical company, Adcock, is for the novel novel antibiotic adjuvant entity (AAE), Potentox. The product developed at Venus Medicine Research Centre(VMRC), has been found effective against penicillin and multidrug set of antibiotics resistance.
The product would be supplied out of Venus's state-of-art EU GMP approved manufacturing facility at Baddi. The company has already been marketing it successfully in India and few of the emerging markets around the globe. The product is growing with a CAGR of 25% since past 3 years. The company is under discussion for the strategic tie-ups on Potentox with other international pharma companies in regulated markets as well.
As per Dr (Mrs) Manu Chaudhary, director- research - VMRC, JMD Venus Remedies, "Infections caused by resistant microorganisms often fail to respond to conventional treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. Getting Potentox to South African market at such point in time can prove to be all the more significant for society at large as the drug works synergistically on multi-drug resistant bacteria that not only halts the development of bacterial resistance but also its spread."
South Africa has had one of the highest reported rates of pneumococcal penicillin resistance in the world, as high as 76%. Almost 25% of S. pneumoniae isolates from South Africa are multi drug resistant.The overall systemic antibacterial market of South Africa is approximately USD 275 million growing at CAGR 10.5%, out of which this product is designed to address a segment as big as 25% and company projects to gain a market share of 15% of this segment within 3 years of launch making it over USD 10 million product in South Africa itself.
Commenting on the deal, Mr Pawan Chaudhary, CMD Venus Remedies said, "We are pleased to join hands with Adcock and are confident that the deal shall take our research product to its meaningful stage in South Africa. Adcock will have exclusive marketing rights of the product in South Africa over the period of 15 year. The product will remain under patent protection till 2025 in African territory and is expected to be launched by mid of 2015 after getting due regulatory approvals."
Potentox is a research based antibiotic product of the company protected by patent in USA and in number of other countries across the globe including India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine. It is an antibiotic adjuvant entity (AAE); a new drug product effective in case of hospital Acquired Pneumoniae and Febrile Neutropenia infections, including Penicillin and Multidrug resistant case proved through clinical studies on >500 patients, which has also indicated approximately 20-30% reduction in the cost of therapy as compared to conventional therapies being used.
