Bayer Zydus Pharma to continue to invest in new medicines

The strong performance for multiple years speaks of the growing demand for its medicines to patients battling serious ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and eye diseases related to ageing and diabetes.

Singapore: The Indian pharmaceutical sector is growing impressively and German pharma major Bayer will continue to invest in the country for new drugs, a top company official has said.

The company is satisfied with the performance of its equal joint venture (JV) with Zydus Cadila, the official has noted. The JV is called Bayer Zydus Pharma.

"The Indian pharma market is growing at a very impressive rate and so has our business. We want to continue bringing most of our new medicines to India," Bayer Asia Pacific Senior Vice-President Claus Zieler told here earlier this week without specifying the growth numbers for the company or for the market.

Asked about how he assesses the India operations, Zieler said, "We've been in a joint venture with Zydus Cadila since 2011 and it has been a successful collaboration. We're pleased with that and we are continuing to invest together with Zydus in India".

He did not quantify how much the proposed investments would be or a timeline, though. The strong performance for multiple years speaks of the growing demand for its drugs to patients battling serious ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and eye diseases related to ageing and diabetes.

"We'll continue to bring new and better drugs to India and build more collaborations with external partners," he said.

Zieler said for cancer, precision medicines will hold a greater promise as it can ensure more targeted therapies and better outcomes. Despite progress in cancer survivals, there is still a higher medical need in this area, Zieler said adding that Asia accounts for half of the world's cancer burden and it is estimated that cancer cases in the continent will reach 10.6 million by 2030.

Bayer India's joint venture Bayer Zydus Pharma operates in key segments of the domestic drug market with a focus on women's health, metabolic disorders, diagnostic imaging, cardiovascular diseases, anti-diabetic treatment and oncology.

Bayer's Asia-Pacific Head for Medical Affairs Chuan Kit Foo said they are working to address the healthcare burden in the region by bringing in new and better treatments to patients.

"By involving Asia-Pacific patients in our clinical development activities, we can provide patients with earlier access to our innovative medicines," he said.

Bayer saw a 7.3 per cent growth in Asia-Pacific sales to over 5.2 billion euros in 2018 led by strong growth in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Indonesia, and it eyeing a topline growth of about 4 per cent globally in 2019.

The company has also tied up with the National University of Singapore to launch an initiative to drive healthcare innovations to help prevent strokes and heart attacks.

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