The Weekly News Update is a weekly roundup of business news from around the Asia-Pacific region, covering Fusion Consulting's core industry practices: chemicals, consumer & retail, financial services, industrial & logistics, information & communication technology, life science and media & leisure. If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in subscribing, please forward this email to them and copy knowledge@fusionc.com.  Life science

India - Pharma companies face pricing pressure Source: The Times of India, 10 March 2008 Depreciating foreign currencies and pricing pressure in the generics business will eat into bottomline and revenue of Indian pharmaceutical companies in 2008. Last year, most firms' revenues and profits have been adversely affected as a result of increasing pricing pressure, competition in key Western markets, and appreciation in the rupee. Between December 2006 and 2007, the rupee appreciated by 11.6% against dollar. The industry's sales growth last year was around 10%. Though the industry registered a significant profit margin of around 21% last year, it was mainly driven by highly profitable 180-day marketing exclusivity products of a couple of drug companies such as Sun Pharma and Glenmark. Singapore - GSK opens US$83 million R&D pilot plant Source: Today (Singapore), 11 March 2008 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has opened its first Asia R&D plant in Singapore, located within GSK's existing manufacturing plant in Tuas. Many pharmaceutical firms in Singapore are increasingly placing greater emphasis on manufacturing innovation by establishing pilot plants to complement their commercial-scale manufacturing facilities. The S$116 million (US$83 million) R&D pilot plant will produce new medicines that are in their final phase of development. Last year, biomedical sciences (BMS) manufacturing output reached a high of S$24 billion (US$17.3 billion), with a value add of S$13.4 billion (US$9.6 billion). This amounts to almost a quarter of the country's total manufacturing value added. Thailand - Compulsory licensing of cancer drugs may save millions Source: Asia Pulse, 10 March 2008 Thailand could save almost Bt4 billion (US$127 million) as a result of compulsory licensing enforcement on key cancer drugs between 2008-2012. The key cancer drugs are Docetaxel, sold as Taxotere by Sanofi Aventis; Erlotinib, sold as Tarceva by Roche; and Letrozole, sold as Femara by Novartis. An official study estimated patients would bear the burden of high medical costs of the three patented cancer drugs between Bt3.7-9.3 billion (US$117 -295 million) million within five years, while the price of patented drugs after negotiations with giant drug firms could cost between Bt2.4-4.6 billion (US$76-146 million) over the same period. The cost of imported versions of generic drugs was estimated only between Bt321-909 million (US$10-29 million).     View an example of our experience in this industry. Back to list of articles.  Visit our new website to sign up for free intelligence on Asian markets.

This Weekly News Update is a free newsletter, providing a round-up of the week's Asia-Pacific news from our core industry practices. If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in subscribing, please forward this email to them and copy knowledge@fusionc.com.

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