Bangalore, April 3, 2008: India's largest pharma company by revenues, Ranbaxy Laboratories has launched Bonista - Teriparatide injection (recombinant human parathyroid hormone) for the treatment of Osteoporosis, in collaboration with Virchow Biotech, headquartered at Hyderabad in India. Bonista has been indigenously researched at Virchow Biotech and developed with aid from the India's Department of Science and Technology. With this launch, Ranbaxy becomes the first company in the world to introduce this bio-generic product.

 

Mr Sanjeev I. Dani, Senior Vice President & Regional Director (Asia & CIS), Ranbaxy, said, “With growing longevity, Osteoporosis- a condition characterized by loss of bone mass, would gain increased attention. Ranbaxy has a number of new products in its pipeline including ‘Bonista’, for the Osteoporosis patients who are normally treated by orthopaedics and gynaecologists. Bonista is also a classic example of our endeavors to offer quality biogeneric therapeutic options to doctors and an affordable and efficacious product to patients.”

 

The release noted that the osteoporosis segment in India currently has a market size of around Rs 219 crore ($54.82 million) and grew more than 29% in value terms in 2006-07.

 

Osteoporosis is highly prevalent in India. An estimated 61 million people in India are reported to be affected by it. The life span of an average Indian has increased and this contributes to the increased incidence of osteoporosis. Recent data indicates that Indians have lower bone density than their North American and European counterparts. One of the reasons could be that the majority of Indians have low vitamin D status and are on low dietary calcium which makes them prone to bone diseases. As regards the burden of osteoporosis in the Indian scenario, 50% women have osteoporosis and this translates to over 30 million in actual numbers.

 

Although data on the prevalence of osteoporotic fractures is limited, it is estimated that each year, osteoporosis causes more than 1.5 million fractures, resulting in permanent disability, loss of independence, and death.