India's Lupin Strengthens Its Brand Presence With Oscient Pharma's Antara

MUMBAI - For Lupin - the fast emerging Indian generic drug maker - the switch from pure generic drugs in the U.S. to a patented and branded play is happening faster than many analysts expected. Lupin made an audacious $38.61 million bid for bankruptcy-threatened Oscient Pharma's top cardiovascular drug Antara (fenofibrate), and finally clinched the deal while outpacing at least three other generic rivals.

Brand Antara has a history of changing hands: in 2006, Oscient acquired the drug from Reliant Pharmaceuticals for $78 million. Reliant had, in turn, acquired the product from Ethypharm.

With this latest addition, Lupin has three branded drugs in the U.S. market, Suprax (cefixime),its anti-infective leading the portfolio, followed by the recently purchased intra-nasal steroid Allernaze (triamcinolone).

Lupin acquired the product under the U.S. bankruptcy procedures, but is now faced with the tougher task ahead of defending the patents of Antara, which expire in 2020, and is being challenged by Paddock, a generic drug maker.

Hypothetically, if Lupin does not succeed in defending the Antara patents, the brand will be genericized and several other players could enter the segment, diluting Lupin's revenues significantly.

Ironically, since last year Oscient itself had been litigating against Lupin to protect the patent after the Indian company filed for a marketing approval to U.S. FDA, seeking to dislodge the validity of Oscient Pharma's patent claims.

With the brand acquisition, Lupin also settled its litigations and sold its Abbreviated New Drug Application to fellow Indian company Dr. Reddy's. Though it is not clear yet on how much Dr. Reddy's can make from the product, senior Lupin officials said the Hyderabad-headquartered company will have the first right to market copies of Antara, six months before its patents expire.

Trailing Abbott For Fenofibrate Market Share

In the market for cholesterol reducing fenofibrate drugs, Antara has a share of 4.5 percent and trails behind Abbott's Tricor, which recorded sales of nearly $2 billion dollars, but a few other fenofibrate manufacturers are engaged in a bitter fight for a larger market share.

Other brands of fenofibrates in the U.S. market include Lipofen by Cipher and Triglide by Skyepharma. Generic versions of fenofibrates are marketed by Teva, Impax and Ranbaxy. Antara has been growing at roughly 20 percent year-on-year.

Speaking to PharmAsia News from Baltimore, Group CEO and President of Lupin Pharmaceuticals Vinita Gupta said her team had identified the product many months ago and it has been a big "find" for the company.

Explaining that the Antara brand will fetch the quickest returns for the company, Gupta said since her company paid a little above half of the total annual sales of Antara, the company can get the returns within a few months. "We indeed want to add more value to the brand now that we own it and will scan every possibility of growth."

Lupin is now looking out for more products with a differentiated appeal that are correctly valued. "We did this deal within four months of the first deal on Allernaze from Collegium and we will go for more products in the primary market."

Lupin has been a darling of stock investors ever since it adapted an aggressive strategy in terms of an expanding global presence and began lapping up companies from Japan to Germany and Australia and South Africa.

Citigroup's Prashant Nair wrote in a research note, "We believe that Lupin's acquisition of Antara strengthens its branded franchise in the U.S., especially with generic competition for Suprax likely to be around the corner. While it is difficult to gauge the financial impact until management provides more details, given Lupin's past track record and some details available, we would be surprised if it is not accretive at the outset."

While growth indications are strong, analysts are weighing one big negative issue confronting Lupin. The company is under U.S. FDA scrutiny for alleged manufacturing lapses at its Mandideep manufacturing site, but the company is confident that good progress is being made toward resolution of the case (Also see "India’s Lupin Says Ready To Present Mandideep Plan To U.S. FDA; Push On Novel Drug Delivery, Biosimilars And Indian Market To Propel Revenue Growth" - Scrip, 8 Jun, 2009.).

- Vikas Dandekar ([email protected])