Dr Reddy’s Pressing On In Russia, China Approvals Add Spark

Dr Reddy’s is pressing ahead with plans in China, a market where it has a long-standing presence and aims to go big.

M V Ramana, Dr Reddy’s CEO, branded markets (India and Emerging Markets), indicated that China remains a focus market for the company and after the olanzapine win, the company has a lot going on.

“We brought abiraterone acetate into the market and are waiting for the group purchasing organization (GPO) to happen. But the good news is that we have recently received three approvals - deferasirox orally dissolving tablets, lenalidomide and vigabatrin,” Ramana told Scrip at the media interaction to discuss the fourth quarter earnings for fiscal year 2022.

In 2019, Dr Reddy’s emerged as the first Indian generic firm to bag a win for the supply of olanzapine under China’s new centralized drug procurement program.(Also see "Ready, Set, Lowest: Who Won China’s Latest Drug Bidding War?" - Scrip, 26 September, 2019.)

Last year the company filed about 11 products in China and expects to scale up moving into FY2023, which is the 12 months ending 31 March next year.

In the next couple of years, Dr Reddy’s expects to file 15-20 products, and receive a “good number” of approvals starting from FY23, Ramana added.

“China continues to be a focus market; what we do both in our representative office as well as our joint venture is in line with what the Chinese government is expecting us to do - bring in high quality, affordable generics, and try our best to ensure that we participate in the first GPO”.

Dr Reddy’s China subsidiary, Kunshan Rotam Reddy Pharmaceutical Co. Limited (KRRP), is a joint venture with the Rotam Group of Canada.

Earlier Dr Reddy’s CEO Erez Israeli had maintained that 70 products from the firm’s US portfolio can meet China’s regulatory requirements and registration was already underway for some of the products.(Also see "Indian Firms May Want To Slow March Into China" - In Vivo, 20 November, 2019.)

“Being there for the last 20 years, selling about $100m, about 10 products, we never left China even when it was hard and hopefully now, we can reap the benefit of it,” Israeli, Dr Reddy’s then-chief operating officer, had said at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2019.