Cipla ready to supply generic drug to West

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Mumbai: As worries about a possible swine flu outbreak in the West spread, pharma major Cipla Ltd on Monday said it is ready to supply 1.5 million doses of oseltamivir, the generic version of the bird flu drug, Tamiflu, which can be effective for swine flu.

Cipla, which had challenged multinationals with its cheap versions of AIDS drugs for a Medecins Sans Frontieres programme in Africa years ago, said it can deliver the drug in a month. “Cipla has the capacity to supply the drug within 4-6 weeks,” Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla, said on Monday.

The company hasn’t yet been approached by any government, Lulla said. Vineet Chawdhry, joint secretary, health ministry, said the country may add one million doses of Tamiflu or its generic versions to fight any outbreak of swine flu, doubling existing stockpiles.

Cipla sells the generic copy of Tamiflu in India at Rs 1,000 ($20) for a dose of 10 capsules, Lulla said. In contrast, the market price for Tamiflu is Rs 3,000 ($60). The company can supply India and overseas governments from its domestic factories, he said.

Following his statements, the company’s shares soared on Monday to a 52-week high of Rs 255.50, before closing at Rs 243, up by Rs 4.35 or 1.82% on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Early this month, the Delhi patent office had rejected the application of Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, for a patent, considering Cipla’s arguments that the drug lacked “inventiveness”. Swiss major Roche Scientific has bought the marketing rights for Tamiflu in about 50 countries, including India. It has also sub-licensed its production and marketing rights to Hyderabad-based Hetero in India. In 2006, with the outbreak of the bird flu in India, Cipla had announced its capability to launch the drug in India.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type-A influenza that regularly causes outbreaks among the animals. Reports said at least 103 people have died in Mexico from the swine flu. WHO has declared the flu to be a “public health emergency of international concern” and governments are taking precautions to screen for the virus.

Swine flu rattles global markets