SOUTH AFRICA'S ASPEN PLANNING NEW GENERICS PRODUCT LAUNCHES

South African generics producer Aspen Pharmacare has outlined plans to carry out a major expansion, and could launch up to 100 new products as leading drugs come off patent in the coming years. In the next two years alone, the company's product line is expected to add 29 cardiovascular, 19 respiratory, 17 anti-infective and 16 central nervous system drugs. The company already produces more than 650 individual drugs. Nevertheless, Aspen has cautioned that future generic versions of leading branded drugs could be less lucrative than their ethical counterparts, partly as a result of increased competition.

Aspen is already the South African government's largest generics supplier, marketing several leading products including its contraceptive Minerva and hypertension treatment Pharmapress. The company also stands to gain from new laws requiring local doctors to prescribe generic alternatives to drugs produced by the multinational sector, and it also recently secured voluntary distribution licenses for HIV/AIDS treatments produced by UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline.

In addition to increasing its generics portfolio, Aspen's recent development has also been in line with wider trends among leading generics producers. Notably, the company has developed proprietary medicines in recent years, such as antiallergy drug Kestine, the painkiller Mybulen, and antidepressant Ativan. Further, the company's plant in Port Elizabeth also received US FDA approval in December 2004. Aspen also has ongoing distribution and intellectual property arrangements with leading drugmakers, including Switzerland-based Novartis, Germany's Merck KgaA and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as US-based Bristol Myers Squibb.