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Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is to begin selling generic drugs throughout the US and Europe as part of a recent trend by brand name drug makers to move into the generics market.
The move is an attempt to cash in on the hundreds of drugs that have lost patent protection in the United States and overseas.
Pfizer reached an agreement with Indian company Aurobindo Pharma to produce generics as part of the New York-listed company’s established products unit.
The Greenstone subsidiary already profits from the sale of more than 300 Pfizer medicines that have lost patent protection but still managed to generate $10 billion (£7.1bn) in sales last year.
Aurobindo will take care of getting approval to make generic versions, while Pfizer will handle the marketing after licensing each product from Aurobindo.
David Simmons, president and general manager of the established products unit, said: “We’re targeting by 2013 to generate more than $1 billion in incremental sales for the company through portfolio expansion.”
He said Pfizer is also considering how best to market all those off-patent drugs in emerging markets such as China, Russia and India.
Copyright Press Association 2009
