Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, India's largest pharmaceutical company, is an integrated, research-based, international pharmaceutical company.
Today Ranbaxy has a presence in 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical markets of the world. The company has a global footprint in 43 countries, world-class manufacturing facilities in eight countries and serves customers in over 125 countries.
Ranbaxy was incorporated in 1961 and went public in 1973. Its mission is to enrich lives globally, with quality and affordable pharmaceuticals. In 2011, the company recorded global sales of $2.1-billion. The company has a balanced mix of revenues from emerging and developed markets that contribute 47% and 46% respectively.
Growth is well spread across geographies, with renewed focus on emerging markets. The company aims to provide a wide basket of generic and innovative products, leveraging its unique business model with Daiichi Sankyo.
Ranbaxy will also increasingly focus on segments with high growth potential, such as vaccines and biosimilars (products whose active drug substance is made by biological processes, rather than being chemically synthesised). These new areas will add significant depth to the existing product pipeline.
Research and development
Ranbaxy views its research and development capabilities as vital to its business strategy to provide a sustainable, long-term competitive advantage.
The company has a pool of over 1 000 scientists engaged in ground-breaking research and development.
Ranbaxy is among the few Indian pharmaceutical companies in India to have started its research program in the late 1970s, in support of its global ambitions.
The first-of-its-kind world class research and development centre was commissioned in 1994. Today, the company has multi-disciplinary research and development centres at Gurgaon, India, with dedicated facilities for generics research and innovative research.
The research and development environment reflects its commitment to be a leader in the generics space — offering value added formulations and development of new drug applications and abbreviated new drug applications — based on its novel drug delivery system (NDDS)'s research capability.
Ranbaxy's first significant international success using the NDDS technology platform came in September 1999, when the company out-licensed its first once-a-day formulation to a multinational company.
Ranbaxy has developed and launched India's first new drug discovery, Synriam, for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in adults. The new anti-malarial drug — a combination of arterolane maleate and piperaquine phosphate — was approved in 2012 by the Indian drug regulator, the Drug Controller General of India for manufacturing and marketing in India.
There is a sharper focus on research and development of generic pharmaceuticals, as the company is increasingly working on more complex and specialist areas. Its over 14 000-strong multicultural work force celebrates more than 50 nationalities.
Ranbaxy has a long standing relationship with Africa. It was the first Indian pharmaceutical company to set up a manufacturing facility in Nigeria, in the late 1970s. Since then, the company has established a strong presence in 44 of the 54 African countries with the aim of providing quality medicines and improving access.
At present Ranbaxy has four entities with ground operations (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco); five representative offices (Kenya, Zambia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Senegal); three manufacturing facilities (South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco) and another two green-field manufacturing facilities under construction at Egypt and Nigeria.
In South Africa, Ranbaxy has over $100-million in investments, initially through a subsidiary company called Ranbaxy (SA) and later through the acquisition of BE-Tabs Pharmaceuticals. It is equipped to manufacture, import and supply quality medicines to the South African market. Ranbaxy also has a joint venture to manufacture, import, market and supply anti-retroviral drugs to the public and private sectors. Combined turnover in South Africa is in excess of $100-million.
Ranbaxy has been present in South Africa since 1996 and is currently the sixth largest generic operation to bring international quality, affordable medicines to the people of South Africa through its subsidiaries Ranbaxy (SA) and BE-Tabs.
The local subsidiary is based in Centurion and is engaged in the sale and distribution of generic prescription products in the South African healthcare system.
Ranbaxy's joint-venture, Sonke Pharmaceuticals, markets and sells Ranbaxy's range of anti-retroviral products in South Africa.
Ranbaxy is a prominent supplier of Antiretroviral (ARV) products in South Africa through its subsidiary Sonke Pharmaceuticals. It is the second largest supplier of high quality affordable ARV products in South Africa which are also extensively used in government programs providing access to ARV medicine to millions.
Sonke is also among the top companies which supply ARVs in the private market. They have deep and long term commitment to South Africa and in the process, Ranbaxy has already invested in local manufacturing in excess of $100-million and offers enhanced access to international quality affordable medicines to the masses. Ranbaxy has built one of the largest and most high technology pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in South Africa employing over 500 people.
Ranbaxy expanded into South Africa through Ranbaxy (SA) (Pty) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy, which was set up in 1996.
The company said: "Today we have three entities in South Africa: Ranbaxy, Be-Tabs and Sonke Pharmaceuticals and across the whole of Africa, Ranbaxy has a presence in 44 of the 54 countries."
Although Ranbaxy is a manufacturer of generic medicines, it also markets innovator medicines of Daiichi Sankyo of Japan, a top global innovator company.
Ranbaxy views research and development as a vital component of its business strategy and has a pool of highly qualified scientists with extensive knowledge base and global exposure covering all areas of pharmaceutical research from Formulation Development to New Drug Discovery.
Most of the research and development work is carried out in India, but we have the freedom to bring the molecules we require into our own portfolio in South Africa. We are able to source from India, but we also liaise and collaborate with local and overseas pharmaceutical businesses. Ranbaxy employs more than 500 people in South Africa, with both Ranbaxy and Sonke having head offices in Centurion, while Be-Tabs is based just south of Johannesburg. Ranbaxy also operates regional offices around the country.
Most of the business relates to acute therapies and prescription medicines, with over the counter (OTC) medicines accounting for roughly another 25% of its portfolio. Approximately 70% of its prescription medicine's manufacturing is for antibiotics, with the remainder comprising cardiovascular and remedies for the central nervous system.In total it has 192 SKU's between Ranbaxy and Be-Tabs, with an additional 16 marketed by Sonke.
In 2001 Ranbaxy South Africa had an annual turnover of R28-million and just 22 employees.
"From that point we embarked on a campaign to rapidly grow. We added sales staff and became more focused in manufacturing medicine for chronic conditions. We enlarged our portfolio and started to explore opportunities to introduce first to market generic medicines and 2002 proved to be a turnaround year.
"In 2005 we launched Sonke as a vehicle for our HIV — ARV business. That business includes a 30% black economic empowerment shareholder. We needed to improve our critical mass in South Africa building a decent portfolio of products and one of the routes was acquisitions.
"The decision was drawn-out, but resulted in the purchase, in May 2007, of Be-Tabs, a South African family-run company that was in the field of manufacturing medicines since 1974. The acquisition cost was R500-million and part of the deal required Ranbaxy to invest in upgrading Be-Tab's existing manufacturing facility.
"We spent an additional R340-million to upgrade Be-Tabs — and the machinery fully came on stream earlier in 2012. The acquisition proved a success and catapulted us to the status of fifth biggest generic medicine manufacturer in the country," said the company.
By 2009, Ranbaxy had an annual turnover of R650-million.
"The business dynamic is now changing and we have restructured our management to focus more on the commercial side. We have added sales staff to our roster to increase our share of voice and become more competitive.
"We have carried out three local therapeutic equivalence clinical trials. The originator product to date, further demonstrating the efficacy of our products. We are the only generic company with an ongoing local program of this nature. We are currently running another two trials, both of which are injectable antibiotics. We hope to complete these trials in the coming year. These products will improve our offering to the hospital sector.
"Our standards are in accordance with the Medicines Control Council and we employ very high level professionals who are involved in every production process. We use qualified pharmacists and every process is documented, every product is tested following stringent quality testing norms before it is released for sale to the market," it said.
Operationally, there remains a shortage of qualified senior management within South Africa's medicine manufacturing industry.
Ranbaxy believes to train promising individuals and build local capabilities and capacities, but also recruits some people from overseas from time to time.
The company said: "We believe in expanding local manufacturing, nearer to market in South Africa gives us greater flexibility and speed to service the market and therefore, we continuously work towards localizing the manufacturing of our products in our Be-Tabs facility".
"We have invested significantly on new equipment, which will enable us to improve our output capability — and this is very much an ongoing process. For the local business we are presently well equipped to supply to South Africa and our four neighbours (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland). We are currently working to develop as a South African manufacturing hub to supply to Ranbaxy operations in sub-saharan Africa.
"We are looking at high volume movers across all therapeutic classes and will look to bring in the top new molecules in the prescription arena as well as to expand our existing OTC business."
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