The Hindu Business Line : `Hetero Drugs well prepared for Tamiflu'

HETERO Drugs Ltd, the $160-million Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical group company that signed up with Roche for Oseltamivir generic Tamiflu, has begun production of the drug and expects to export it from January onwards.

Speaking to Business Line, the Director, Technical, Mr Narsa Reddy, said "it is difficult to give numbers as to what could be the overall potential of the drug, since it all depends on how much stockpiling the Indian Government and other developing countries would do so and how much of that order would come to Hetero."

"That we were well prepared for this project with an investment of $17 million on this facility can be gauged from the fact that we have already begun production," Mr Reddy said.

"We have managed to strike this deal with Roche given the company's focus on retroviral products from 1996. Earlier, Generic Product Organisation Thailand, had approved for providing necessary inputs for Tamiflu. Since, we were engaged in work related to this over the last couple of years, we were chosen to handle this by Roche," Mr Reddy said.Giving the sequence of events, Mr. Reddy said Hetero filed with Roche for Tamiflu, as was the case with Ranbaxy and Cipla. Based on this, a team from Roche visited India and interacted with Hetero, which has since been licensed to manufacture this drug.

"It is not possible to quantify how much this deal would actually mean, since it all depends on how much the Indian Government expects to stockpile," he said.

However, this has potential to add Rs 100 crore to the turnover in the first year.

The company has committed to deliver one million capsules of Oseltamivir to the Government. Each capsule is likely to be priced at $12. The company has begun production of Tamiflu.

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