Cadila gets approval to market new diabetes drug Lipaglyn in India

Mumbai: Drugmaker Cadila Healthcare Ltdreceived regulatory approval to market a new diabetes drug in India that it developed and is aiming for more than $1 billion in sales globally, the company said on Wednesday.

Cadila, India's sixth-largest drugmaker by sales, spent $250 million developing Lipaglyn, a new chemical entity or new discovery, and aims to spend another $150 million to $200 million to launch the drug outside India, the company's chairman, Pankaj Patel, said.

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"We expect this to be a blockbuster drug, which means over $1 billion sales a year" when the drug is sold globally, he told a news conference. For now the company is hoping for Lipaglyn sales of 1 billion rupees in India over three years, he said.

Cadila took about eight years to develop the molecule and conducted clinical trials on more than 1,000 patients in India, Patel said.

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The company plans to launch two other new chemical entities in the next seven years and has eight drugs in various stages of clinical development, he added.

Traders on Tuesday had driven up the company's shares by 5.2 percent in anticipation the company would make a bigger announcement than the drug approval on Wednesday such as a stake buy and drove the shares down 4.2 percent in afternoon trading.

Reuters