SOUTH AFRICA'S ASPEN PLANNING NEW GENERICS PRODUCT LAUNCHES
South African generics producer Aspen Pharmacare has outlined
plans to carry out a major expansion, and could launch up to 100 new products
as leading drugs come off patent in the coming years. In the next two years
alone, the company's product line is expected to add 29 cardiovascular, 19 respiratory,
17 anti-infective and 16 central nervous system drugs. The company already produces
more than 650 individual drugs. Nevertheless, Aspen has cautioned that future
generic versions of leading branded drugs could be less lucrative than their
ethical counterparts, partly as a result of increased competition.
Aspen is already the South African government's largest generics supplier, marketing
several leading products including its contraceptive Minerva and hypertension
treatment Pharmapress. The company also stands to gain from new laws requiring
local doctors to prescribe generic alternatives to drugs produced by the multinational
sector, and it also recently secured voluntary distribution licenses for HIV/AIDS
treatments produced by UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline.
In addition to increasing its generics portfolio, Aspen's recent development
has also been in line with wider trends among leading generics producers. Notably,
the company has developed proprietary medicines in recent years, such as antiallergy
drug Kestine, the painkiller Mybulen, and antidepressant Ativan. Further, the
company's plant in Port Elizabeth also received US FDA approval in December
2004. Aspen also has ongoing distribution and intellectual property arrangements
with leading drugmakers, including Switzerland-based Novartis, Germany's Merck
KgaA and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as US-based Bristol Myers Squibb.