Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) is on a consolidation mode. The company is in the process of merging its various arms, including its contract research business and pharmaceuticals business and turning it into a single entity under the name of Reliance Life Sciences. The consolidation process will take two years and in the meantime the company has kept all of its expansions, including acquisitions, on hold.
RLS is expected to launch a cache of 40 products in biosimilar, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and stem cell areas in the next 3-4 years is exploring new geographical areas such as the Middle East, Africa and CIS countries for export. The company has an agreement with a global formulation player to supply APIs from its Navi Mumbai facility. KV Subramaniam, president & CEO, RLS, told FE, ?RLS is focusing on product development and productivity. This is being carried out with the objective of bringing in operational efficiencies.?
RLS will be launching three biosimilars in India in the ?recombinant proteins? category by March 2010. These are interferon beta, follicular stimulating hormone and tissue plasminogen activator for treating multiple sclerosis, infertility and myocardial infarction, respectively. RLS will also launch a stem cell therapy for cardiac infarcts. In the API and formulation category, RLS is slated to launch pemetrexed and capecitabine in oncology sector. According to Subramaniam, RLS has a pipeline of fourteen products in biosimilar space. ?In the area of regenerative medicine, we have eight cell therapies in the pipeline while there are seventeen products in the API and formulations category in pharmaceuticals,? he said. ?We are working on registering products in Middle East and the CIS countries and focusing on initially exporting developmental quantities of API in these markets,? he added. RLS, which is keen to participate in the European biopharmaceuticals market through its subsidiary, Reliance GeneMedix, is currently conducting clinical trials for erythropoietin and GCSF in Europe. Reliance Life Sciences has commissioned three facilities for manufacturing recombinant proteins, a manufacturing facility for plasma proteins and an API facility for bulk drug manufacturing (oncology products and steroids).