Cipla Targets U.S. With Glaxo’s Advair, Anti-AIDS Drugs
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Cipla Ltd. shot to prominence a decade ago by selling AIDS drugs for $1 a day in Africa. Now the Indian generics maker is seeking a bigger slice of the U.S. market with cheaper medicines for asthma and HIV.
Cipla’s top target is a version of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s asthma treatment Advair. It plans to submit an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year for an aerosol version, Chairman Yusuf Hamied said in an interview. While the U.S. patent on the drug expired in 2010, Glaxo still has protections on the inhalers used to deliver it, and the U.S. is making generic drug makers prove that their devices are as good.