Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd, (Emcure) has entered into a collaboration with Swiss pharma major Roche for local manufacturing and marketing of Roche innovative molecules in India, under its supervision and as per Roche's technology.
The products – exactly the same as the original Roche formulation - will be made at Emcure’s Hinjewadi facility. They will be sold as both Emcure and Roche products under different brand names, Mukund Ranade, Executive Director, Emcure said that this will mark Emcure’s entry into monoclonal antibodies space.
The partnership will help increase access to Roche medicines in India and make them more affordable, he added.
Under the pact, Emcure will manufacture and market two of Roche’s molecules. The first, Trastuzumab, earlier sold as breast cancer drug Herceptin will now be sold as Herclon by Roche and Biceltis by Emcure. The second is Rituximab, sold as Mabthera, a drug for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Similarly, this partnership will be extended to Roche’s patented products in India currently sold under brand names Tarceva (for non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancer) and Pegasys (for hepatitis B and C), Ranade said.