"CIS markets have huge potential and the eyes of multinational pharmaceutical companies are already being directed toward
them," she adds. "Currently, India is the third largest exporter of drugs and pharmaceuticals to Russia.
"The CEE is also a fast-growing generics market itself with consumption of pharmaceuticals still being much lower than in
Western Europe," she explains. "Thus Indian companies, like other foreign companies, are interested in supplying that market
as well."
Indian companies could establish a large manufacturing presence in Europe, perhaps ultimately similar in size to that set
up by US pharmaceutical producers in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike their US counterparts a few decades ago, however,
multinational Indian companies will not have to restrict themselves to Western Europe but will be able to spread across the
entire continent.
Sean Milmo is a freelance writer based in Essex, United Kingdom.
World Briefs
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
WHERE IS THAT?
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After a negative year in the news, China has finally agreed to improve the safety of its drug and food exports. Li Changjiang,
minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the People's Republic
of China, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt signed two Memoranda of Agreement (MoA) on Dec. 11 in Beijing,
to promote information-sharing, and ensure safety and compliance.• Hikal (Mumbai, India) signed a contract manufacturing agreement
with Pfizer (New York) in which Hikal will supply active pharmaceutical ingredients. • WuXi PharmaTech (Shanghai) signed a
definitive agreement to acquire AppTec Laboratory Services (St. Paul, Minnesota). The transaction totals approximately $151
million with the additional assumption of AppTec debt totaling approximately $11.7 million.
EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST
2008 Forecast
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Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) is launching a new initiative, called "Forward," to enhance productivity by streamlining the
organization and redesigning the way it operates. "Forward" will include 2008 and 2009 initiatives estimated to bring in annual
pretax cost savings of $1.6 billion in 2010, as well as the reduction of approximately 2500 full-time positions (2.5% of group
total) worldwide. • Novozymes (• Bagsvaerd, Denmark) and Millipore (Billerica, MA) announced an agreement to develop, market, and sell new, animal-free, cell-culture supplements
for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The alliance will initially focus on developing recombinant human albumin and recombinant
human transferrin. • La-Pha-Pack (Langerwehe, Germany), a manufacturer and provider of chromatography consumables and related
products, was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA) and will be integrated into Thermo's laboratory consumables
business. • DSM Pharma Chemicals (Parsippany, NJ), a business unit of DSM Pharmaceutical Products, entered into an enzyme
supply agreement with the German company IEP(Wiesbaden) to enable scale-up of chiral alcohol manufacturing based on IEP enzymes.
• sanofi-aventis (Paris) ended its participation in the development of IDM Pharma's (Irvine, CA) "Uvidem," an investigational
therapy for the treating melanoma. As a result, IDM plans to restructure and reduce its workforce in the first quarter of
2008. • Biotechnology company Crucell (Lieden, The Netherlands) signed a collaboration and commercialization agreement with
sanofi pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis (Paris), for Crucell's rabies monoclonal antibodies. • Pharmaterials
(• Reading, United Kingdom), a preformulation and formulation development company, was acquired by Pharmaceutics International (Baltimore), a manufacture
of solid and semi-solid dosage forms.
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