Laurus Labs up to Take on Biggies,US flooded with Generic HIV Drugs
“The savings for US payers will be so huge when these generic combination drugs are available in the US,” Laurus CEO Satyanarayana Chava says, adding that payers will save “billions of dollars.”
US patents on key components for some important HIV therapies are poised to expire starting in December and Laurus Labs Ltd—the Hyderabad-based company which owns the facility—is gearing up to cash in.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Atripla, a three-drug combination of Sustiva, Viread and a third drug, carries an annual wholesale price of about $37 000 per person, while an analysis indicated that the use of generic alternatives could save the US $900 million an year.
The roughly 1.1 million HIV patients in the U.S. typically take a combination of medications to treat the illness. Despite the potential to tap into this market with generics, it is important to note that companies like Gilead, which rakes in $2.6 billion from HIV drugs, have already begun switching patients to newer medications that are still under patent protection.
Laurus is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of ingredients
used in anti-retrovirals, thanks to novel chemistry that delivers cheaper production costs than anyone else. Now, its chief executive officer, Satyanarayana Chava, wants to use the same strategy selling his own finished drugs in the US and Europe. He predicts some generics that Laurus produces will eventually sell for 90% less than branded HIV drugs in the US, slashing expenditures for a disease that’s among the costliest for many insurers.“We believe we’ll be able to bring cost effective generic alternatives to the US market,” predicted Chava, suggesting the company will eventually be able to beat larger competitors such as Teva on price.
Nevertheless, Laurus is reportedly gearing up to produce as many as 5 billion tablets of HIV drugs per year as the first tentative USFDA approval has now come through.
