Ranbaxy Labs, Aventis tie up for vaccines

NEW DELHI: Ranbaxy Laboratories is entering into biotechnology with a range of vaccines for Indian market. The pharma major has joined hands with Aventis Pasteur for marketing six vaccines here.
These vaccines will cater to the preventive areas of Rabies, Meningitis, measles, typhoid and hepatitis-A and haemophiliac influenza, Ranbaxy regional director Sanjiv D Kaul told The Times of India.“The marketing tie-up with Aventis for sourcing its vaccines will be restricted to selling within India. In the area of biotech, we have identified vaccines as the target area.�
To start with, Ranbaxy will source Verorab from Aventis for treating rabies. The market for this vaccine is estimated at Rs 25 crore. Some of the other vaccines to be sourced from Aventis are Typhim, Avaxim, Tetracthid, Acptip.
According to Kaul, Ranbaxy will follow a two-fold marketing strategy for promoting these products in India. While Verorab will be promoted exclusively by Ranbaxy''s sales force through its pharma marketing wing, other five products will be jointly promoted by Ranbaxy and Aventis'' sales teams.
Industry observers said Ranbaxy-Aventis marketing alliance could be termed as a win-win alliance with biotech has been identified as a major focus area for the Indian pharma major and India is emerging as an important market for Aventis, a global leader in vaccines business with presence in 150 countries. Kaul said after launching these six vaccines, both the partners will chalk out a robust product portfolio for future launches.
He added that considering the extent of success of the first launch, Ranbaxy will also develop a difference sales strategy for vaccines, instead of promoting vaccines through pharma division. There will be a separate sales force and division for these products.