It added that branded generics represent the most significant growth opportunity in emerging markets.
He says he expects the branded generics to be squeezed on price while innovative drugs benefit.
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Founded and runs Sun Pharmaceuticals, maker of branded generics with factories in India, Europe and U.S. Investing in drug discovery.
On the branded generics side, the company is heading full bore into novel drug delivery systems like the once-a-day version of Bayer antibacterial ciprofloxacin.
Pharmaceutical companies are going to put their advertising budgets behind the new drugs, which are likely to be more expensive than tried and tested drugs or non-branded generics.
The real action now is in branded generics, which command a premium in many emerging markets due in part to the fear that unknown products might be fake or of dubious quality.
His arguments were well received by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British drug giant, which struck a deal in June to have Dr Reddy's make a portfolio of inexpensive drugs that GSK will sell as branded generics in the many countries in which it already has a sales force.
My colleague Bob speculates that these payments cause doctors to prescribe costly branded drugs over generics.
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But she also spoke pointedly about whether generics are therapeutically equivalent to their branded counterparts.
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Generics are chemically identical copies of branded medicines that have lost patent protection, creating a level of competition that can drive prices down.
In turn, it can squeeze suppliers of generics--it has less clout with branded drugs, which have no competition--to service the likes of Kmart, Walgreens and CVS. The cost of money has dropped, too.
The law was designed to reduce the ability of drug companies to promote more expensive branded products to doctors and thus encourage the use of cheaper generics.
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In June, Express Scripts, one of the biggest managers of pharmacy benefits in the U.S., told its clients that Celebrex and Vioxx provide only a narrow benefit over ibuprofen (the branded version is Advil) and naproxen (Aleve), which, as generics, are vastly cheaper (see box).
Simultaneously, the deal provides further insight into how leading global generics manufacturers are looking to reposition themselves as the patent cliff subsides and the landscape for non-branded products continues to evolve.
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