The company is also gearing to launch the generic drug, `Fluoxetine', in the European market soon whose patent expires in 2001.

Smithkline Beecham is the original inventor of `Co-Amoxyclav' and Hoechst Marrion the generic `O-Floxacine'.

Talking to The Financial Express, Ranbaxy president (pharmaceuticals), Brian Tempest said, "although Co-Amoxyclav has a big market, the company is exepcted to benefit more from the launch of `O-Floxcine' since there are only a few competitors." Ranbaxy is further working towards launching other branded generic drugs which will go off-patent in the coming few months in the European markets, he said.

In a bid to strengthen its position in the European markets, the company has launched a number of supply contracts which will make its products enter most key markets of Westren Europe soon.

Ranbaxy has already won 19 contracts for Europe and another two for Finland. Another 27 supply contracts will be finalised soon, said Mr Tempest.

Ranbaxy would be supplying its products to over 12 European countries including Belgium, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. These supply agreements are expected to give a significant boost to Ranbaxy's international sales.

These supply contracts are in addition to the company's existing operations in UK and Poland where Ranbaxy already has its own subsidiaries as well as in Germany where it acquired Bayer's generics business last month.

Apart from the effort to push overseas sales, Ranbaxy has launched a number of new drugs in the respiratory, osteoarthritis, nutritionals, arthritis and anti-infective segments in the Indian market.

Prominent among the launches are Ambroxil tablets for respiratory problems, Salza syrups and tablets (nutritional), Rofibax tablets (osteoarthritis), Fluzet caps for cold management and Riconia syrup.

Commenting on the dissappointing performance of most of Ranbaxy's overseas subsidiaries, Mr Tempest said these overseas units have passed through the investment phase and are exepcted to turn around this year. The existing overseas subsidiaries are not in the best of health and reported losses of over Rs 30 crore in 1999. The UK subsidiary, Ranbaxy UK, is expected to significantly improve volumes out of deals to supply Eli Lilly `Cefaclor' and SmithKline Beecham (SB) `Co-Amoxyclav' formulations. Cefaclor is a major cefalosporin antibiotic and amoxyclav is an amoxycillin-clavulanic acid combination sold by Smithkline Beecham under the brand name Augmentin.

Meanwhile, Ranbaxy has appointed Peter Burema as the regional director-Europe, CIS & Africa. He will be based in London and will report to Mr Tempest.

Mr Burema has an educational background in marketing and pharmaceutical sales and has almost 20 years of experience with pharma majors like Boots Company Plc., Smithkline & French and Bayer.

He has worked across multiple locations in Holland, Germany, Scandinavia and East Asia. He had also worked as general manager-pharmaceutical division of Bayer AG in Indonesia.