Recently, the delhi high court dismissed a plea filed by the UK pharma giant AstraZeneca, seeking a restraining order on the generic versions of irs diabetic medicine dapagliflozin. The high court dismissal order has now paved way for a further price reduction in this segment.
AstraZeneca holds two patents for dapagliflozin in the country, one of which expired in october 2020, and another one will expire in May 2023. Already a few generic drug makers like Eris, Zydus Cadila, Intas, Alkem, Torrent Pharma, MSN have jumped into this segment and launched generic versions at competitive prices.
AstraZeneca sought a restraining order against these generic firms for marketing of the anti-diabetic drug. AstraZeneca’s Dapagliflozin is sold under the brand name Forxiga, which belongs to a popular class of anti-diabetic drugs known as SGLT2 inhibitors, which have around Rs 5,000 crore market.
Sun Pharmaceuticals has acquired the patent license from AstraZeneca for manufacturing dapagliflozin and dapagliflozin metformin combination in India. The sun pharma brand tablets costs around Rs 30 each, while the generic version are cheaper with Rs 11-15 per tablet.