After spending a decade over research, Venus has recently launched its novel antibiotic adjuvant entity to combat antimicrobial resistance caused by MDR, ESBL producing strains in India. It also has plans to take this product to the next level within the coming years. Dr Manu Chaudhary, Joint Managing Director and Director—Research, Venus Remedies shares the company’s marketing and branding strategies for Elores with Usha Sharma
Recently, Venus launched Elores, an antibiotic adjuvant entity (AAE). Tell us more about it?
| Dr Manu Chaudhary |
It took Venus almost 10 years of constant hard work, focused approach and dedication to develop this breakthrough product named ‘Elores’ and bring it to the world. It is a novel antibiotic adjuvant entity (AAE) to combat antimicrobial resistance caused by MDR, ESBL producing strains. It is designed specifically to target growing bacterial resistance mechanisms. Elores has a unique profile of action which gives it an edge over all the existing therapies. This unique antibiotic adjuvant entity creates a synergistic effect due to its activity on acquired multiple resistance in Gram Negative Enterococci and Rods which acts by multiple mechanisms. The product is effective against Metallo betalactamases (MBL) producing pathogens which are not susceptible to most of the existing antibiotics. It is also unique in its way that it not only kills resistant pathogens (bacteria) but also prevents the spread of resistance.
What marketing strategies have you adopted for Elores and how you are going to implement them?
We have a dedicated team of highly specialised and trained people for promotion of this product. We have plans to launch this product pan-India and in the first phase we have launched the product in Delhi NCR for the northern region. Similarly, we will be launching it in the other three territories of the nation i.e. East, West and South. We have set up a special department and a team for its promotion and marketing, who has already started working dedicatedly for Elores only.
How much revenue are you targeting from this new launch? How do you plan to achieve the set targets?
We have our marketing strategies in place and we are working in line with it to achieve our set goals for Elores. We are expecting to gain 10 per cent of the share of the AMR segment Elores caters to in the next five years, making it an over Rs 2.0 billion product. Apart from the domestic marketing plans, we are also in talks with leading pharma companies to introduce Elores in South Africa and later in the US as well. We have already secured patents for Elores from all over the world, including countries like US, EU (37 European countries), Australia, and Russia. The company is awaiting registration grants for Elores from European regulatory bodies to commercialise it there sooner. Our next international launch would be in South Korea where clinical trials on this product are expected to be completed later this year.
Why do you think Elores is the need of the hour?
Elores is the need of the hour because it is clinically proven to be the best product so far against MDR, ESBL and MBL producing strains. As per the rising AMR scenario, the currently available ICU drugs are developing resistance very fast and there are regions in India where this resistance is as high as >90 per cent, thus Elores is the only hope for the medical fraternity in such a scenario. We have conducted clinical trials phase I, II and III successfully on a large patient population of 654 patients to prove clinical efficacy and safety in ESBL/ MBL resistant pathogens.
According to a study conducted in Delhi, patients with hospital-acquired infections (HAI) experienced a significantly longer hospital stay (mean: 22.9 days); significantly longer intensive care unit (ICU) stay (mean: 11.3 days); a significantly higher mortality (mean: 54 per cent) and cost significantly more (mean: $14, 818) than the patients resistant to hospital acquired infections. So, Elores is the need of the hour as it would be able to curtail these statistics. It would be able to reduce a minimum of 30 per cent of the hospitalisation costs and a minimum of 50 per cent of the drug cost, thereby proving to be very beneficial for the patients.
What is the speciality of your newly launched product?
Our product Elores is a novel AAE which is patented from 45 countries of the world due to its unique synergistic feature to fight with multi drug resistant ESBL/ MBL producing bacteria including superbugs like NDM-1. Elores increases cell permeability, down regulates ‘Efflux pump over expression’, breaks bacterial ‘Biofilms’, prevents ‘Transfer of resistant plasmid’ and hence the spread of resistance is controlled.
How much has been spent on Elores and how much time did it take to launch the product in the Indian market?
On an average, we have spent 10 per cent of our company’s revenue in research and have been investing almost 20 per cent of the company’s R&D expenditure for developing and establishing this technology itself.
Which are the other markets you are eyeing and why?
We are eyeing all the major regulated markets starting from South Korea, Europe, South Africa, the US and all other markets where we have patent protection till 2025.
Why are you considering these countries as prospective markets for the product and how soon will it be launched in these markets?
We have patent protection in 44 countries, thereby we have exclusive rights in these territories till 2025. Hence, we have hired the services of one of the top four leading pharma consultancy providers to help us in finding suitable partners to introduce our product ‘Elores’ in various overseas markets by out-licensing this to multinational companies who have big marketing muscles in the specified territories. We are planning to launch Elores in South Korea by next year. Besides this, we are awaiting regulatory approvals from European bodies to commercialise the product in the European markets very soon.
Tell us how many medical representatives have been employed by Venus and how many of them have been deputed for only Elores?
We have a full fledged team of 700 marketing professionals all over India. For Elores, a department has been set-up with highly professional medical representatives who will be dedicatedly working on the promotion and marketing of Elores across top 100 hospitals of India.
Do you plan to increase the manpower strength of medical representatives in the near future?
Yes, we are already in the process of hiring. We are also building Venusian’s Chamber, a global marketing office for Venus on NH 22. It would be a business incubator providing global market space and would be dealing in developing and implementing ongoing marketing plans for the successful promotion of products, achieving effective sales and marketing results.
Presently, how many products are in the pipeline and how soon will they be launched in the Indian market?
At present, we have eight products in the pipeline which are at different phases of development. Apart from these, four products are in the ‘soon to be launched’ category, which would be launched in the next two to three years, depending upon various regulatory approvals.
For the coming financial year, do you plan to expand your business?
We already have our hands full with a kitty of 70 products, including 13 research products which are doing very well in various markets around the globe. We are into complex molecules’ manufacturing like carbapenems and oncology. At present, our main focus is to strengthening our product portfolio with more novel research products.
By 2018, where do you want to position your company?
Our mission is to establish Venus Remedies as an innovator company and to be a globally admired pharma company for world class quality and innovations. We are progressing in this direction by working hard to fulfil these missions and to create an IP wealth of $1 billion by 2015.
How much will be spend on R&D and marketing in the coming fiscal?
On an average, Venus is spending 10 per cent of its revenue in the research. For marketing, we already have a marketing force of 700 professionals and we have already initiated the process of recruiting more for the coming fiscal.
What was the turnover of the company in the last year and how much will it be in the current fiscal?
In the last year 2011-12, the turnover of the company was Rs 405 crore. This year in 2012-13, it is expected to grow at around 15 per cent.
How large is your international business presence and how much does it contribute to the total turnover?
Currently, we have presence in six continents and 60 countries around the globe. We have 11 international marketing offices including US and Germany, among the most demanding pharma destinations in the world. Around 30 per cent of the company’s turnover comes from exports with 10 per cent from Europe and 20 per cent from the rest of the world.