In search of a healthy alliance

The Indian health sector is booming as it scouts around for the best alliances across Europe. These pacts will prove crucial in the country′s quest to meet stringent global standards of the future.Apollo Hospitals strike England pactIndia's Apollo Hospitals chain has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Health Education England (HEE), an executive non-departmental public body of the UK's Department of Health, to promote cooperation and interaction in healthcare education between India and England.The MoU is expected to deepen and enhance the experience of global learning to the healthcare workforce in India and the UK.The collaboration aims to achieve a number of objectives including clinical rotation of doctors, nurses and midwives and other health professionals, as well as undergraduate healthcare students through an exchange mechanism.Prathap C. Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said: "This endeavour will help in augmenting quality of patient care to very high level not only in UK and India but in other parts."Sir Keith Pearson, HEE chair, said: “HEE is committed to bringing a difference to the quality of healthcare workforce in regions of the world which have a dearth of trained manpower and concerns with quality of patient care. Towards this mandate, we are delighted to partner with Apollo Hospitals Group.“Through this collaboration we will be not only delivering our high quality medical education programs to the workforce in India but also in future, to workforce in other low and middle income countries of the region.”India, UK health regulators sign MoUWith an aim of improving public safety in the UK and India, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), part of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India and UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).Dr Gyanendra Nath Singh, Drugs Controller General (India), said: “The MoU is going to create a new platform where patients will be given utmost importance. Quality medicine, affordability and transparency will be the tools for making medicines available to the people of the two nations.”The central understanding of the agreement includes promotion of each other's regulatory frameworks, requirements and processes. It will help in exchange of information and opportunities for technical cooperation, assistance for better equipment to protect the health of their respective publics.In 2014, MHRA had carried out more 550 inspections in the UK and 125 in non-EU countries, 49 of which were in India.The India Brand Equity Foundation states that the Indian pharma sector accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the global pharma industry and is the third largest in terms of volume.Lupin strikes German pharma pactLupin, India's third-largest pharmaceutical company, has entered a joint strategic alliance for co-marketing linagliptin, a novel dipeptidylepeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor in India.Mumbai-based Lupin has entered into an agreement with the German company named Boehringer Ingelheim (BI).Under the terms of the agreement, Lupin will market and sell linagliptin under a separate brand name Ondero, which will be promoted by Lupin′s 400-strong dedicated diabetes specialty field force. Boehringer will continue to sell its linagliptin under the brand names Trajenta and TrajentaDuo through their existing sales force and network.Lupin Group president for India Region Formulations Shakti Chakraborty said: "I believe our entry into the high growth DPP-4 Inhibitor market with the launch of Ondero and Ondero Met will not only strengthen our diabetes portfolio but also help us consolidate our position as a market leader and the fastest growing player in the top five in the anti-diabetes segment."Lupin′s said its anti-diabetic portfolio contributes 15 per cent to Lupin′s India formulations sales.Glenmark strikes Polish dealResearch-focused Indian generic drug maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that its European subsidiary - Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Europe Ltd - has entered into a strategic drug development and licensing agreement with Polish drug maker Celon Pharma. The deal is specifically to develop and market a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's branded respiratory inhaler product Seretide Accuhaler."As per the terms of the agreement, Glenmark has obtained semi-exclusive marketing and distribution rights of the product across 15 European countries including Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Romania, among others," Glenmark said in a statement.Celon, on the other hand, shall receive an upfront payment, followed by certain milestone payments during various stages of the product′s development from Glenmark, including royalties on sales. Celon has been investing heavily in developing technologies for inhalation drugs for some time now.