Niche players bet on therapies from abroad

Health care and pharma firms in niche therapies have sensed gains in bringing in drugs to India through deals with foreign companies and launching them under their brands.

Ahmedabad-based Sundyota Numandis Group has taken the licensing route to bring in products in probiotics, pharmabiotics, nutraceuticals, and phytopharmaceuticals (sourced from botanical extracts) from international firms.

Sundyota has also tied up with leading pharma players here such as Abbott India, Zydus Cadila, Alkem, Cipla, USV Pharma, Mankind Pharma, Ajanta Pharma, and Eris Lifesciences for manufacturing products that these players can launch under their brands.

Banking on these tie-ups, the firm is expecting to touch a turnover of ~5 billion in the next five years (from ~1.1 billion in 2017-18).

Sundyota has tied up with international firms like Lesaffre Human Care (the world's largest yeast-manufacturing company), BioiBerica, Ingredia Nutritional, Finzelberg, and Probiotical to source their products. It has licensing agreements on 70 products and has launched 21 of them in the Indian market so far.

Dinesh Arora, managing director and chief executive officer, Sundyota Numandis, said the firm was able to reach out to around 60,000 doctors, and, through tieups, big pharma.

"We manufacture and sell to these firms, which, in turn, sell them under their own brands," Arora said, adding that it was spending ~850 million out of internal accruals to set up a unit for formulations near Ahmedabad (especially for pro-biotics and

nutraceuticals).

The products in question (on women’s health, joint and tendon care, stress management, metabolic health, child immunity, cosmetology, etc) are not pharmaceutical ones because they are not sourced from synthetic chemicals. Sundyota’s products need approval from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for manufacturing and marketing in India.

“Big pharma firms are using them as supplementary or support medication with their core therapies, like we have probiotics for diabetics, where the species and strain are customised to suit specific needs,” Arora said.

Bengaluru-based venture capital-promoted Sayre Therapeutics, which is working on cancer diagnosis and treatment by bringing in international drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics, is aiming for place among the top five players in the next five years.

The oncology drugs business in India is estimated to be around $500 million, and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10-11 per cent.

The diagnostics market is estimated to be 7-8 per cent of the drugs business. Sayre Therapeutics was incorporated in 2015, with venture capitalists investing around ~248 million.

The company had started with a niche therapy area for tumour lysis syndrome (TLS). It approached generic players to market its product.

Apart from oncology, immunology is another key therapeutic area of Sayre, which was founded by two former biotech professionals, Shukrit Chimote and Vandana Subramanian, who felt there was a gap in niche therapy areas.

The company is trying to bring in international diagnostics also.