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Business News/ Companies / Arun Sawhney | Synriam is a CSR initiative, it will not bring us significant profits
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Arun Sawhney | Synriam is a CSR initiative, it will not bring us significant profits

Arun Sawhney | Synriam is a CSR initiative, it will not bring us significant profits

Viable option: Arun Sawhney, chief executive officer and managing director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, says Synriam is suited for the national anti-malaria programme. By Prashanth Vishwanathan/BloombergPremium

Viable option: Arun Sawhney, chief executive officer and managing director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, says Synriam is suited for the national anti-malaria programme. By Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories launched India’s first indigenously developed drug for malaria treatment, Synriam, on the occasion of World Malaria Day on Wednesday.

Viable option: Arun Sawhney, chief executive officer and managing director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, says Synriam is suited for the national anti-malaria programme. By Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

The drug was launched by health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad along with science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. One dosage, a tablet a day for three days, costs 130.

Arun Sawhney, chief executive officer and managing director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, said in an interview that the development of Synriam was a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by the company and the drug should be a part of India’s national anti-malaria programme. Edited excerpts:

How much did Ranbaxy spend on research and development (R&D) for Synriam? What was the contribution of the Indian government?

While we did not keep strict accounts, Ranbaxy spent around $30 million on Synriam and the contribution from DST was 5 crore. The drug went through several phases of development since the project began in 2003. We did not look at this as a commercial development. Instead, this is a CSR venture for us. This drug is the most economic drug available for treatment of malaria.

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Are you in talks with the health ministry to include Synriam in the national anti-malaria programme?

We are certainly hoping this drug would be a part of the national programme for malaria eradication. We will be working with the health ministry’s technical committee and taking this further.

This is suited for the national programme as Synriam can be had at any time of the day, without dietary restrictions and this will lead to better compliance. Since Synariam has a synthetic source, production can be scaled up whenever required and consistent supply can be maintained at a low cost.

How will Synriam start adding to the company’s profit?

Recovery of cost from this venture might take years. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn’t look at Synriam as a commercial venture. This was a passionate CSR initiative and I do not think the drug will bring us significant profits. If it is a part of the government programme, we will further lower the prices but it must be kept in mind that we cannot sell it below cost.

Will you launch the drug in other markets?

We are working towards launching the drug in all endemic countries, which includes other Asian countries, South America and Africa. We will complete Phase-3 clinical trials in Africa in the first quarter of next year.

It will take us another six months to get approvals from relevant authorities and we can launch it after that in African markets. We did not want to invest in Africa until the efficacy was proved in India, which caused a little delay.

In 2010, Ranbaxy’s New Drug Discovery Research (NDDR) unit was transferred to Daiichi Sankyo. Does this mean that Synriam would be the first and last drug to be discovered by Ranbaxy?

There is a wrong perception that Ranbaxy has given up the research unit to Daiichi. Our investments in R&D have increased year after year. That move was a part of our strategy to strengthen global research within the Daiichi group.

However, Ranbaxy’s independent research for Synriam continued after the transfer and will continue in the future as well.

vidya.krishnan@livemint.com

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Published: 25 Apr 2012, 10:57 PM IST
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