"ROW2's RouteDesign service has given us many Novel Route ideas for our target molecules. The diverse route ideas recommended in RouteDesign reports also act as excellent stimuli to our own thought process. I must add that ROW2 team is very responsive and follow strict security norms. We are using RouteDesign service satisfactorily for the past 3 years.”

- Director Technology, Process R & D Dept, One of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies.

"New additions in SmartChem are truly value adding. Sending an after sales request was little time consuming earlier. But now with the new After Sales Assistant, I can send my requests quickly and easily. I compliment SmartChem team for these additions"

- Sourcing & Materials Manager, One of the leading chemical companies, Europe

"SmartChem now allows us to search for DMF, VMF holders for compounds of interest to us. This information is very useful to my organization.”

- Manager Sourcing, Pharma company, USA

Welcome to CI2E Quarterly! ROW2 Technologies is delighted to bring you the second issue of 2008.

CI2E connects with over 5000 industry professionals from over 900 companies spanning across 25 countries every quarter. Business Development, Sourcing and R&D professionals from Life Sciences and Chemical industries appreciate CI2E as a true Compendium of Information, Interaction and Entertainment!.

• ROW2 World: Updates on ROW2 and its offerings.

• Article: Ranbaxy, Daiichi Sankyo deal – is there more to come?

• Picks of the Quarter: Links to various interesting articles.

• My Forum: Dr. Andrew Warmington talks about upcoming Chemspec events.

• Entertainment: Interesting facts on Soccer!

ROW2 World- Quarter 2 highlights:

ROW2 News:

• Events: Scientific Update, the organization known for its contribution in the process chemistry arena, had organized Organic Process Research & Development Conference from June 23-26, 2008 in Montreal, Canada. ROW2 was proud to be a Silver Sponsor for this event. ROW2 also participated at Chemspec Europe from June 18-19, 2008 in Munich, Germany and Biointernational Convention’08 from June 17-20 in San Diego, USA.

• Quarter of enhancements and enrichments: One of ROW2's flagship offerings - SmartChem saw various value added enhancements and enrichments last quarter. With these enhancements, SmartChem is now more informative, more interactive and more user friendly. We thank our customers for their encouraging feedback on these upgrades. Read on to learn more about these enhancements.
  

• ROW2’s Soccer fever: Though scoring goals at Euro 2008 was a pretty tough task, SmartChem subscribers from Europe and USA hit goal after goal easily in “SmartChem & Euro 2008 Contest” and won exciting prizes. We thank all the contestants for their participation. Our heartiest congratulations to all the winners!
  
  

SmartChem News

• SmartChem Enhancements:
  
  In our efforts to see that customers benefit even more from SmartChem, we have enriched the SmartChem knowledgebase with the following:

  • DMF/VMF Status: The Suppliers section within SmartChem is now enriched with DMF/VMF status.
    
  • Online After Sales Assistant: This user-friendly feature makes sending After Sales requests easier and faster, just at the click of a button.
    
  • Usability Enhancements: SmartChem is now more User Friendly. Suppliers section, Literature information, Chemical Structures are now available in the most apt locations making SmartChem experience more complete.
  
  

• Upcoming enhancements:

  • Company-wise product list
    
  • List of Innovators / Developers
    
  • Product status
  
  
  

Write to us to know more about these enhancements.

RouteDesign News

• Biotech companies derive value from RouteDesign: In addition to Pharma, Agro and Chemical companies, now Biotech companies too are benefiting from our flagship offering - RouteDesign. With increasing expectations from licensing partners, investors and increasing pressure to improve value realization, biotech companies are focusing on providing more and more complete packages to their licensing partners. Providing scalable chemistries is considered to be one of the most crucial parts of licensing packages, which are helping biotech companies to get better realization for their programs.
  
  
• ROW2 Webseminar: ROW2 will soon be hosting a webseminar on a topic related to Process Research. To participate and know more about the webseminar, write to us here.
  
  

  Important Events: Jun’08 to Sep’08

  August:
  19-21 : CPhI South America: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
  

  September:
  08-09 : Chemoutsourcing: NJ, USA
  14-17 : Scale-Up of Commercial Processes: Rome, Italy
  16-19 : BioLogic Europe 2008: Geneva, Switzerland
  28-30 : ACS ProS: Process Chem in the Pharma Ind: USA
  30 Sep-2 Oct: CPhI Worldwide: Frankfurt, Germany
  

Featured Article

In a dramatic announcement last month, the promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s largest pharmaceuticals company, announced they were selling out to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo in a deal that valued Ranbaxy at US$8.5-bn.

To understand the deal, it is important to take cognizance of the dramatic changes happening in the global pharmaceutical industries – both in generics and amongst innovator companies.

To read the full article click here

Interesting Links

Early-phase research migrating from US
Published in: Drug Researcher.com: July, 2007 Issue

This interesting article talks about the recent trend in Pharma industry where companies are choosing to conduct their preclinical and early-phase research outside the US.

Big Deals
Published in: Pharmaceutical Executive: Feb., 2008 Issue

There are some interesting developments in the world of licensing. This article covers key partnering deals of some top pharma companies.

Biotech Survives Difficult Opening to 2008
Published in: BioPharm International: June, 2008 Issue

This article sheds light on how Biotech IPOs and Financing are down in the current market crisis yet M&As are as successful as ever.

Featured Article Cont'd.

Soaring costs of research associated with proving safety and efficacy of drugs to demanding regulatory authorities have forced many innovative companies to rework priorities, reallocate resources and driven a consolidation in the industry. In spite of these efforts, Big Pharma has a dwindling pipeline of new products regardless of recent scientific advances that aim to take out much of the guesswork from the process.

At the same time, pressures on pricing of existing drugs in the market have come from governments across the developed world, to rein in soaring healthcare costs.

Competition from generic companies has exacerbated the crisis. The top 10 generic companies are multi-billion dollar enterprises, which have global presence and a doggedness that has brought great angst to innovative companies. Price declines of drugs on expiry of its patent are dramatic and sharp up to 90% of the value is lost within days, and even more disappears after six months, when the exclusive license to the first generic company to register the molecule expires and the floodgates are open to even more generic competition.

Big Pharma has responded to these concerns by multiple strategies. Prioritizing research and making it cost effective through outsourcing strategies is one approach. In-licensing of discoveries at the early stage of the innovation process is also increasingly resorted to. Innovator companies are increasingly resorting to contract manufacturing of intermediates, active ingredients and even finished formulations. Much of the outsourcing of products under patent still happens within the developed economies and only a small trickle gets outsourced to India or China, due concerns over the sanctity of intellectual property.

A few Big Pharma companies have also set up their own generics business, in a strategy which resonates with the ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ philosophy.

Challenges for generic companies:

For generics companies scale has become crucial. The need to maintain presence in multiple geographies, each with its own drivers for growth and regulatory requirements, is resource intensive. Patent challenges for being the first to file are even more resource-sapping and there is increasing realization that authorized generics could be a more risk-free approach to take – albeit less rewarding.

Companies like Ranbaxy also have ambitious programs for drug discovery under the correct assumption that this can be done far more cost-effectively in India than elsewhere in the world. They have probably under-estimated the risks. Importantly, as of now, no India-discovered drug has been launched in the local or international markets. This has also prompted a rethink of the approach to this business.

Leveraging a low cost base:

By acquiring Ranbaxy and making it a subsidiary, Daiichi will hope to leverage its low cost resource base for drug discovery, process development and to capitalize on the extensive market reach that Ranbaxy has built in the many geographies it presently serves. It will also mark the Japanese companies foray into the generics business, wherein Ranbaxy’s world-class facilities for manufacture of APIs and formulations will prove a great advantage. Nowhere are the needs to cut costs in manufacturing greater than in the generics business wherein the cost of the API is a significant portion of the cost of the finished formulation and India is the best place where relentless process development for paring costs can be done.

A reality check for Indian Pharma:

At the end of the day, the deal is a reality check for the ambitions of Indian Pharma companies. Ranbaxy’s sell out is an admission of sorts that there is only so far that it can go on its own steam and the next leap both in generics and drug discovery will need the big pockets that can only come from overseas.

The deal also reinforces the fact that for innovator companies, it is becoming increasingly important to have a presence in generics.

About the author-Mr. Ravi Raghavan

Mr. Ravi Raghavan is the Editor of "Chemical Weekly", one of the most widely circulated and reputed chemical publications, and Director of the Chemical Weekly Database P. Ltd. He is involved in extensive reporting of activities in the chemical industry and hence has an in-depth understanding of the complexities of this industry.

He also heads the team of researchers that provide market assessment and entry-level strategies for companies looking to invest in the Indian chemical industry.

He has received his Bachelor of Science (Technology) from Bombay UDCT in India and his M.S. in Polymer Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA.

Contacts: ravi@chemicalweekly.com - www.chemicalweekly.com

To sponsor future newsletters, write to us here.

Dr. Andrew Warmington, Editor - Specialty Chemicals Magazine, DMG World Media reveals plans for the upcoming Chemspec events.

Chemspec Europe took place on 18-19 June at Munich's new M,O,C, Centre and preliminary figures suggest a major increase in attendance on last year's show. The organizers, DMG World Media, have also announced that Chemspec Middle East will take place for the first time in Dubai on 8-9 December 2009, while Chemspec Latin America will also return in 2009 and Chemspec India 2009 will be increased to three days in response to customer demand.