P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai , June 10

IT may not be a piece of cake after all for Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's — the two Indian companies that on Thursday announced getting the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approval to market generic versions of antibiotic Ciprofloxacin in the US.

Not less than 14 companies have jumped into the fray to make copy-cat versions or chemically equivalent versions of Cipro, following the expiry of Cipro's patent on June 9, industry-analysts told Business Line.

German drug maker Bayer is the original patent holder for Cipro and the company had a pact with Ranbaxy for a once-a-day version of the drug that the Indian company had developed.

"Among the 14 companies in the fray are 11 US companies, the Israel-based company Teva and the two Indian companies. Competition will force the $1 billion market for Cipro to fall between $80 million and $100 million. That is the pattern one sees with different molecules when they go off patent, particularly when there are as many as 14 competitors," the pharma analyst said.

Other US companies that have got the green signal for the generic version of Cipro include : Barr Labs, Cobalt Pharma, Hikma, Ivax, Martec Scientific, Mylan and Sandoz Scientific, said analysts.

While companies such as the Mumbai-based midsized pharma company like J.B. Chemicals is also waiting in the wings for the USFDA approval to outsource Cipro, industry analysts say that as many as 78 generic Indian companies are also in line to reap dividends from the Cirpo-pie.

Cipro going off-patent flags-off more such developments that are expected in future. Drugs worth about $49 billion are estimated to go off-patent by 2007, in the US alone, point out industry-analysts.

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