Gilead Sciences has named Mylan Pharmaceuticals, the Indian-based subsidiary of Mylan as its exclusive branded medicine business partner for India. Under the agreement, Mylan will market and distribute in India certain Gilead medications: HIV therapies Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) and the newer single tablet regimen Stribild (elvitegravir 150 mg/cobicistat 150 mg/emtricitabine 200 mg/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg) AmBisome (amphotericin B liposome for injection), a treatment for life-threatening, systemic fungal infections, which is also used to treat the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis Viread for its indication as a treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Gilead has partnered with Mylan since 2006, granting the company rights to manufacture and sell their own generic versions of licensed Gilead HIV therapies in India and up to 111 developing world countries where the HIV epidemic affects millions of individuals. Mylan will continue to maintain these rights, in addition to those in this new agreement.
“The appointment of Mylan as our branded medicine business partner in India is a result of their strong knowledge of the Indian healthcare system and demonstrated capabilities of supporting and distributing antiretroviral therapies,” said Gregg H Alton, Executive Vice President of Corporate and Medical Affairs, Gilead.
Heather Bresch, Chief Executive Officer, Mylan commented, “This further extension of our collaboration with Gilead builds off of our existing successful partnership manufacturing and supplying high-quality, cost-effective generic antiretroviral therapy for those in resource challenged countries, delivering on our mission of providing access to high quality medicine to the world’s seven billion people.”
In addition to distributing branded Gilead medicines, Mylan will manage regulatory and pharmaco-vigilance activities (such as adverse event reporting) as well as broader medical education initiatives.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai