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Wockhardt, Bayer to enlarge pact

Indian drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd and German chemicals and drug giant Bayer AG will expand a marketing pact to include an anti-infective drug, Wockhardt's chairman said on Thursday.

"We will add the drug cefuroxime axetil to our arrangement with Bayer," Habil Khorakiwala said on the sidelines of signing ceremony for a hospital joint venture with the Maharashtra.

The co-marketing pact with Bayer, signed last year, currently covers the Bayer diabetes drug acarbose, which Bayer and Wockhardt market together in India -- Bayer under its Glucobay brand and Wockhardt under the name Asucrose.

Wockhardt will make the generic cefuroxime axetil drug for Bayer. Bayer will market the drug under the name ForU, while Wockhardt has already launched its brand, Kefstar.

Co-marketing pacts are gaining popularity in India's fragmented drug market.

They aim to expand the market for the drugs in question by using sales forces of two companies to promote the same drug under different brands, which eventually benefits both by increasing individual sales.

Co-marketing pacts in India currently include those between Ranbaxy Labs and Cipla, Ranbaxy and Hoechst Marion Roussel, and Hoechst and Nicholas Piramal.

Wockhardt shares traded little changed at Rs 404.10 on Thursday, while the Sensex was down 0.59 per cent.

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