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Philippines Invested2 Billion Pesos in Agri andPharma Industries in 98-99

Over the last two years, the Philippines governmenthas invested 2.26 billion pesos (US$50 million) in technologiesgeared towards boosting productivity in agriculture,improving the local pharmaceutical industry, and enhancingenvironmental protection.

This information was revealed in a report prepared bythe Presidential Management Staff. The report indicated thatthe funds were mainly allocated for increasing the outputs ofplantation industries such as mango, saba, coconut, corn,ornamental plants, seaweed and hogs, so that they can bemore competitive in the global markets.

The report also noted that the level of research anddevelopment activities on pharmaceutical products hasincreased. Some of the main research activities include anti-body biotechnology and liposome drug delivery technologyfor the treatment of breast cancer, capsules made ofcarrageenan, affordable medicines from indigenous sourcesand urine dipstick used for diagnosing Schistosomiasis, adisease caused by parasitic worms which is common in thePhilippines.

COMPANY NEWS

Singapore MedicalInformatics CompanyLaunches New Website

Singapore-listed medical informatics company, EzyhealthAsia Pacific Ltd., has launched a new healthcare portal,www.drhub.com, targeted at medical professionals, includinggeneral practitioners and specialists. The website will offercomprehensive content, e-commerce and a managementsoftware for clinics.

“The power of the Internet is expected to enable doctorsto interact, to exchange opinions and views to tap medicalknowledge both in Singapore and overseas,” said Mrs. JaniceYeo, CEO of Ezyhealth. “It also enables doctors, medicalpractitioners and healthcare providers to transact productsand services as well as communicate with patients and thegeneral public.”

One of the most powerful draws of drhub.com is aknowledge-based management system and advancedengine designed and supported by Stanford University’s Schoolof Medicine. The system allows the user to search thecomprehensive library of clinical trials, articles, updates ofclinical and medical journals and books in a user-friendlyenvironment.

In addition, the website has an archive of the latest

medical news and in-depth articles on a range of subjects,ranging from biomedicine to current trends on clinical andsurgical practice. It also provides online communicationtools to enable doctors to keep in touch with their patientsthrough their home or office telephones, mobile phones andeven e-mail.

A search engine has also been installed to enable usersto search for drugs and their suppliers in Singapore. Doctorscan then trade with their suppliers and look for the bestprices through this system, saving them time and effort.

Other features provided by the website include a calendarof events where doctors are kept informed of the seminarsand conferences taking place in Singapore and the region,and locum services, where the website will match doctorswith locums who suit their requirements.

Drhub.com also offers special packages for lifestyleproducts, such as tours and fine dining to its subscribers.

Hong Kong to BuildHealthcare Network

Hong Kong’s Health Care International Holdings willinvest about HK$80 million (US$10.2 million) to set up abusiness-to-business information network for the localhealthcare sector.

The company has signed agreements with severalcompanies under the Hutchinson Whampoa conglomerate,and Littauer Technologies, one of its strategic shareholders, todevelop the network. The network is expected to leverage onHutchinson’s extensive broadband service, which covers about1000 commercial and residential buildings in Hong Kong.

The healthcare network would connect private clinics,insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals,laboratories and even credit card companies under oneumbrella. It would allow participating clinics to manage patientdatabases and to download product information, as well ashandle management report for insurance companies andcashless transactions.

So far, 500 private medical doctors have expressed interestto take part in the project and the company expects thisnumber to increase to 1000 by the end of this year. Futureplans include extending the network to Chinese medicinepractitioners and traditional Chinese medical products. HealthCare International also hopes to expand its operations to therest of the Asia-Pacific countries.

“The power of the Internet is expectedto enable doctors to interact, to exchangeopinions and views to tap medicalknowledge …”

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TECHASIA-PACIFIC

N E W SBIS. Africa Gives Green Lightto Zydus-Cadila’s Plant

South Africa’s Medicines Control Council has given itsapproval for Zydus-Cadila’s manufacturing plant in Moraiya,India. The Council’s approval of a plant is required beforethe drugs manufactured there can be imported in South Africa.Estimated at US$1 billion, the South African pharmaceuticalmarket holds great potential for Zydus-Cadila.

Zydus-Cadila is the sixth largest pharmaceutical companyin India and its main products are cardiovascular,gastrointestinal, anti-inflammatory, biologicals and anti-infective segments. The manufacturing plant, which isapproximately 136 000 square meters, is situated in Moraiya,a pharmaceutical manufacturing park in India.

The plant is part of Zydus-Cadila’s expansion plan intothe global market. The company has filed drug applicationsand product licenses with the US and European markets,whose demand for its products is estimated at around US$20billion. It has also set up a subsidiary in New Zealand andhas registered four products for distribution in New Zealandand Australia.

Nicholas Piramal’s JointVentures Expand ProductPortfolio

Nicholas Piramal Group, an India-based company plansto acquire more brands for its healthcare joint ventures withReckitt Benckiser and Boots. The joint ventures plan to useNicholas Piramal as a sourcing base for products sold underthe Reckitt and Boots brand names in the international marketand as a contract research base.

In the Reckitt Piramal joint venture, Nicholas Piramalholds 40 percent stake, Reckitt International holds 40 percentand Reckitt Colman of India holds the remaining 20 percent;while Nicholas Piramal holds 49 percent and Boots 51 percentin the Boots Piramal Healthcare joint venture.

Nicholas Piramal works closely with its partners in themarketing of the products. Reckitt Piramal’s main businessis antiseptic and antacid, with an annual turnover of aboutRs2.7 billion (US$59 million). Under the joint venture, theproduct portfolio includes Dettol and Dispirin from Reckittand Saridon from Nicholas Piramal. Two of Reckitt’s brands,Fybrogel and Gaviscon, were launched by Nicholas Piramal.The joint venture is currently looking for fresh acquisitionsto add to its line-up.

On the other hand, Boots Piramal focuses on throat careand skin care products. The joint venture markets Boots brandssuch as Strepsils, Sweetex and Icy. It also markets two skincare products — Lobate, a corticosteriod, and Melalite, ahyperpigmentation product — both of which are manufactured

by Nicolas Piramal.

Plans to launch new skin care products from Boots’international portfolio are in the pipeline, and the companyhopes that these will improve last year’s turnover of Rs300million (US$6.5 million).

Ranbaxy Launches Enalaprilin US

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., India’s largest pharmaceuticalcompany, launched its enalapril maleate tablets in the USon 23 August 2000. The drug, which is manufactured byOhm Laboratories, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy,was launched through Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc., anotherwholly-owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy. It will be marketed inthe US by Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc., as well asRanbaxy’s co-marketing partner, Purepac, an affiliate ofFaulding, an Australian company. According to a companypress release, the drug has made an encouraging start.Ranbaxy has doubled its production in view of the successfullaunch.

The drug was launched by Ranbaxy following the expiryof its patent. US pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., isthe original patent holder of this drug. Sales of Merck’s brandof the drug, Vasotec, in the US was US$806 million in 1999.Ranbaxy has already filed its Abbreviated New Drug Approval(ANDA) for Lisinopril, another Merck drug whose patentexpires in June 2002. Lisinopril sales in the US reached morethan US$1 billion in 1999.

Ranbaxy, which was founded in 1962, manufactures andmarkets branded generic pharmaceuticals, bulk substancesand intermediates. For the quarter ending 30 June 2000,Ranbaxy recorded a 14.6 percent increase in sales comparedto the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Both thedomestic and export businesses posted impressive growth ratesfor the quarter.

Shenzhen BuildsBioengineering Park

Catching on the biotech wave, another park will be builtin China. Named the Beijing University Bioengineering Valley,it will focus on various subtypes and formulations ofgenetically engineered medicines, such as interferon andinsulin.

The park has been listed as one of the top-ten high-techprojects in China. It is backed by Shenzhen’s municipalgovernment and is a state-certified high-tech pilot project.One of the main products to be manufactured here isgenetically engineered interferon. This drug will be speciallydesigned based on genes from the Chinese. Its annualproduction is expected to reach 100 million units.

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Beijing University and the Hong Kong University ofScience and Technology will be taking up tenancy in theBioengineering Park. One of the main investors is ShenzhenKexing Biology Product Company, which has pledgedRMB$700 million (US$85 million). Kexing is a localbioengineering firm jointly funded by the WeimingBioengineering Group, a spin-off company of BeijingUniversity, and H&Q Asia Pacific, a venture-capital subsidiaryof the US-based Hambrecht & Quist Co.

Malaysia to Use Biotech inPalm Oil R&D

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has announcedrecently the use of biotechnology in its research anddevelopment (R&D) of improved planting materials forMalaysia’s palm oil industry. The country is the world’s largestproducer of palm oil, which is one of its leading exports,earning RM19.2 billion (US$5 billion) last year.

The R&D will employ the microarray technologydeveloped by Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (AP Biotech),a multinational company headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden.MPOB researchers will investigate the basic biology ofpalm oil to identify traits that contribute directly to theviability and competitiveness of this economic product. Thetechnology will help characterize gene expression in palmoil and enhance its cultivation and production. Malaysia willbe the first country outside North America, the EuropeanUnion, and Japan to use AP Biotech’s microarray technologyaccess program.

MPOB plays a leading role in coordinating anddeveloping the palm oil industry in Malaysia by conductingand promoting research related to planting, production,harvesting, extraction, processing, storage, transportation,new uses, and marketing of palm oil and other palm oilproducts.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

India Imposes QualityControl Measures forIndigenous Medicine

With the increasing popularity of traditional Indianmedicine abroad, companies dealing with Ayurveda, Siddhaand Unani drugs in India have been actively sourcing forexports. Local consumption of traditional medicine is also onthe rise. Following this, the Indian government has recentlyset quality control measures for the production, storage anddistribution of indigenous medicines. Manufacturers have beengiven a buffer period of up to two years to comply with theGood Manufacturing Practice (GMP) norms. The buffer period

ends on 23 June 2002.

The GMP norm stipulates that all systems of indigenousmedicines should adhere to the standards for identity, purityand strength as given in respective pharmacopias. In theabsence of such guidelines, units are bound by the norms toevolve their own parameters of quality. It also specifies aminimum operating area of 1200 square feet for manufacturingunits, with special attention to the storage of raw materials,the segregation of “approved” and “rejected” stocks, themaintenance of sterile zones, the disposal of waste, as wellas comprehensive documentation at the manufacturing sites.Areas where aseptic manufacturing is carried out are requiredto have their air supply filtered through bacteria retainingfilters and must be maintained at a pressure higher than inadjacent areas. Besides this, the filters have to be checkedperiodically.

The GMP norm requires the finished products to bestored in a quarantined area. Only approved products willbe dispatched to the market, and distribution records mustbe maintained. In addition, manufacturers are also requiredto maintain a register to record all complaints receivedregarding their products sold in the market. Reports of anyadverse reaction resulting from the use of any products shallalso be maintained in a separate register. The manufactureris required to submit the record once every six months tothe licensing authority.

State governments are already taking measures to ensurethat indigenous medicine manufacturers in their state complywith the norms set by the central government. The State DrugsControl Department of Kerala has already started screeningall new applications for their compliance with the GMP normswhile facilitating upgrading plans of existing units.

Acupuncture Treatment forDrug Addiction

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine havesuccessfully used acupuncture to treat cocaine addiction, adisorder for which there are few effective treatments.Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese technique for treatingillness by inserting needles into various parts of the body.

Results of the Yale study, published in the 14 Augustissue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that 54.8percent of participants who had received acupuncture onspecific parts of the outer ear tested free of cocaine duringthe last week of treatment, compared with 23.5 and 9.1 percentin two control groups. Those who completed acupuncturetreatment also had longer periods of sustained abstinencecompared with participants in the control groups.

The study comprised 82 volunteers who were addictedto both heroin and cocaine. They were divided into threegroups: an acupuncture group, a “control” acupuncture groupin which the patients have needles inserted into points notthought to have a treatment effect, and another control group

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