Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis forecasts 11% revenue growth in the Philippines, Novartis Healthcare Philippines
Release Date: 2010-08-03
Switzerland-based pharmaceutical firm Novartis has positioned the Philippines to lead its Southeast Asian operation as it projects an 11 percent revenue growth to P4 billion here in 2010 fostered by innovations in generics.
Novartis projects this growth amid a generally lackluster progress in the local pharmaceutical industry where a zero growth actually prevails. With the generics sector, the industry at least posts a 2.5 percent growth.
“We have diversified in the past years by coming up with innovative medicine which has made us the fastest growing multinational (pharmaceutical) company,” said Christine Liwanag, corporate affairs and market access director, during its Novartis Biotechnology Leadership Camp.
Growth will come from new products for hypertension and diabetes and flu vaccines. Novartis Healthcare Philippines has introduced early this year a two-in-one vaccine against seasonal influenza and pandemic (H1N1) influenza.
Novartis has introduced an innovative product against hypertension which addresses needs of a select and significant market whose hypertension cannot be controlled by available pharmaceuticals.
“Only one out of four hypertensive case is controlled. That’s 80 percent of cases that are not controlled,” she said.
The company’s novel drug, aliskiren, is the first and only high blood pressure medication that inhibits renin, an enzyme produced by the kidney that initiates the process of narrowing blood vessels in the body, consequently raising blood pressure. It effectively combines the characteristics of two regular hypertensive drugs — that of Amlodipine calcium channel blocker and Valsartan angiotensine receptor blocker.
As the Philippines is taking the lead in the company’s Southeast Asian operations which also includes Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Novartis has begun talks of partnering with the government on several projects. This potentially includes the development of diagnostic tools for dengue or the development of natural drugs (herb-based medicine).
“There is a treatment for dengue. But Dr. (Jaime) Montoya (Philippine Council for Health Research and Development executive director) wants us to develop a diagnostic tool for dengue because we have a need for this,” she said.
Without the diagnostic tools for this dangerous disease, it takes a long time, perhaps around a week, to determine if patients, normally children, have contracted dengue, causing delay of treatment and deaths.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Novartis Healthcare Philippines |
| Country: | 菲律宾 |
| Url: | http://www.mb.com.ph/node/267719 |