DR. REDDY'S URGES INDIAN COMPANIES TO EXPAND CLINICAL TRIALS

The chairman of leading Indian generics producer Dr. Reddy's has urged the local sector to increase the volume of its contract research activity, as opposed to out-licensing discovery work to overseas companies. Dr. K. Anji Reddy claimed that local companies could drive down research costs to as much as one-tenth of current multinational sector research spending. The company terminated its own research out-licensing activity in 2002, as increased revenue enabled the company to bring development work in-house.

Dr. Reddy's has followed a number of leading Indian generics producers in its drive to expand development activity, claiming that it will expand discovery work in India and at new facilities in China in the next few years. Indian drugmakers such as Ranbaxy have expanded aggressively overseas and boosted research spending, indicating that the local sector is rapidly maturing amid challenges posed by authorities' increased regulation of intellectual property.