Pfizer is expanding its burgeoning generics business through a new partnership with India's Strides Arcolab, with which it will commercialize off-patent sterile injectable and oral products in the United States. The deal is part of a giant hedge for Pfizer, which kept the financial details to itself. Facing patent expirations on a number of its top revenue generators, the company launched its Established Products business unit less than 10 months ago to take advantage of growing global demand for low-cost medicines.

 

Pfizer expects its collaboration with Strides to deliver 40 off-patent products, many targeting cancers, to healthcare providers and patients in the United States in a way that leverages its commercial talents and Strides' strength in high-quality manufacturing. Strides has 14 manufacturing facilities in six countries and a global R&D center in Bangalore.

 

Pfizer sees the brand recognition and the association of its name with quality products as helping bolster demand for its generics. “The off-patent marketplace worldwide too often suffers from quality and supply reliability issues,” Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler said in May when the company unveiled new licensing agreements with two other Indian pharmaceutical companies—Aurobindo Pharma and Claris Lifesciences. That arrangement brought the number of non-Pfizer products in the company's portfolio to 128 at that time, 98 solid oral dose and 30 sterile injectables.