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Indian Pharma Company Nabs Pneumonia Patent
29 October 2012
Panchkula, Haryana-based Venus Remedies has entered the Australasia market by receiving a patent from Commissioner of Patents, Trademarks & Design of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand for its antibiotic Potentox, a fixed dose combination of cefepime and amikacin. This combination of a cephalosporin with aminoglycoside is a super-specialty product indicated for the treatment of hospital acquired pneumonia, community-acquired pneumonia and Febrile Neutropenia, according to a company statement.
Potentox, for which Venus already has patents from South Korea, India and South Africa, is contributing more than Rs120 million (US$2.6 million) annually to the total revenues of the company and is expected to grow at the rate of 30% to 40% on a year-over-year basis due to global registrations and patent grants in the pipeline from other markets.
“This patent will give us exclusive marketing rights in New Zealand where, post-registration, we expect to generate handsome revenues from this product which will add to the growth in top line and bottom line of the company,” said company spokesperson Manu Chaudhary.
The company noted that there is a “fair amount of bacterial resistance” towards conventional antibiotics such as penicillin, ampicillin-clavulanate, erythromycin, cefuroxime (Ceftin), ofloxacin (Floxin), and trimethoprim-sulfanethoxazole, which has led to an increase in treatment costs for pneumonia. According to a World Health Organization estimates, on an average, 30% of adults in developed nations who have a pneumococcal pneumonia die from the infection. There is negligible bacterial resistance to Potentox, the company says.
