Venus Remedies Links With Teva Canada For Anti-Cancer Drug

Indian firm Venus Remedies announced that it has entered into collaboration with Israeli generic drug maker Teva to market an upcoming anti-cancer drug in Canada.

The undisclosed oncology drug is widely used in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma and non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Venus said that the drug has a market of more than $4 billion, and it is projected to grow into $5.4 billion by 2020 in the U.S., U.K., Japan, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

As part of the collaboration, Venus Remedies will initially develop the drug in its Research Unit, “Venus Medicine Research Center,” to assist Teva in regulatory registrations. Afterwards, Venus will leverage its manufacturing capability and enter the Canadian market, which is estimated to be valued from $75 million to $100 million. The company said it hopes to capture a respectable share of the market in the drug’s first year of launch.

Dr. Manu Chaudhary, joint managing director, Venus Remedies, said that the two companies have previously collaborated for two Cephalosporin products in the EU. “Conclusion of the deal for Canada market has further strengthened our relationships as well as widened the scope of our products. With this association, Venus will be penetrating the Canadian market for the first time, which will add another territory to VRL's quest for quality services. Teva will use Venus’ infrastructure and regulatory competence for commercialization of this anticancer product in the Canadian market.”

Last week Venus got its first marketing approval in Switzerland for its oncology drug Gemcitabine. The company said it expects to launch the drug in the next quarter of 2014 through its marketing partner Swiss Pharma.

Teva’s latest oncology drug approval was the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization of Synribo injection this February. Synribo (omacetaxine mepesuccinate) was approved for adult patients with chronic phase (CP) or accelerated phase (AP) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that is resistant or intolerant to two or more tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).