Indian Companies Are Becoming More Creative, Says Astellas India Managing Director Teruo Yasufuku: An Interview With PharmAsia News
Article Preview from "PharmAsia News"- June 21, 2010
Teruo Yasufuku, managing director for Astellas Pharma India, is soft-spoken and carefully measures every answer that he shares with the media. But the law graduate who started his career as a medical representative with Fujisawa in 1983 has been recognized for his leadership skills and the enthusiasm to be the best in the business. Terry, as he is called by his Indian industry contemporaries, can tirelessly talk about Prograf (tacrolimus) - Astellas' flagship transplant brand that notches worldwide sales upwards of $2 billion many years after it has been copied by generic companies. Yasufuku, along with his marketing director Himanshu Dave, proudly point at the back of their business cards, which say 'I Pledge To Donate - kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, corneas.' This, Yasufuku asserts, is Astellas' unflinching commitment to the transplant segment. And, although it is a late entrant and faces intense generic competition, Prograf has a long roadmap laid out for growth in India. Yasufuku shares his wide angle on Astellas' India strategy with PharmAsia News India bureau.
PharmAsia News: You recently launched Prograf in India. What is your assessment of the immunosuppressant market in India and since you have brought the product very late here, how do you think Prograf will fair in this fiercely competitive segment?
Teruo Yasufuku: Prograf is a drug of choice in the international transplant market, be it liver, kidney, heart. If you see the U.S. data or the European data, Prograf is the chosen product for the calcinuerin inhibitors for organ transplants. A calcineurin inhibitor is taken which is either a cyclosporin or a tacrolimus. Then as an adjunctive therapy, mycophenolate mofetil and maybe steroids are used, for example, but it depends on the individual hospital's protocols. So, the base drug remains either cyclosporins or tacrolimus.
When cyclosprorins came into the market, it changed the transplant scenario dramatically; and then Prograf came into the market in 1993 in Japan. Now, 17 years have passed after its first introduction, [and] Prograf stays as the standard drug with about $2 billion in sales. Yes, there are generics to the brand in U.S., India and Europe, but it continues to be our biggest product.
PharmAsia News: How exactly are you building up Prograf in India, given the tough market scene and pricing pressures?
Yasufuku: Pricing is a small part of the transplantation business. What is also important is the usage, the proper science behind how to manage a transplant patient and the trust for a patient which a doctor is always looking at - even after a late launch of the product here. So, the doctor still distinguishes from [the other products] and says Prograf is Prograf.
PharmAsia News: How about pricing of the brand as compared to the generic players?
Yasufuku: We are looking at pricing closely but yes, we are still premium priced in the market. We have worked on a tiered pricing structure to make the drug as affordable as we can.
PharmAsia News: On the ground, when you say Prograf is distinguished from the others, what exactly are you doing to get doctors to prescribe a premium-priced product?
Yasufuku: Tacrolimus in India is already five years [behind] and we started our interactions with the doctors in 2007-08. Believe me, there are a lot of things that the doctors are looking for from the product and that is where we as innovators play a major role in defining how to manage [the patient], how Prograf has to be administered and what dose levels have to be examined. So, science still remains the biggest advantage and a strong platform to determine the success of Prograf for us. The marketing strategy revolves around the communication of the best people and the communication is all about the science rather than just the marketing information.
PharmAsia News: How well are you spread out in India?
Yasufuku: It is a small segment and we cover every doctor in the field of transplants. We have 12 people and a sales manager and that is a small community catering to some 150 transplant centers in India. The country, being one of the few largest transplant markets, standing at the fifth rank in the world, we think it will be a successful product. There are some 4,200 kidney transplants that happen in India and about 350 to 400 liver transplant cases that take place in India every year according to our own internal audits. The immunosuppressants market is about 160 crore rupees ($35 million). We are also evaluating how best we can take Prograf to India's neighboring countries.
PharmAsia News: You have the Mycamine (micafungin) anti-fungal product licensed to GSK for co-promotion in India. How is that shaping up?
Yasufuku: It was launched in February, so it is too early to say but we have good relations with GSK.
PharmAsia News: As for your future launches, do you think you will keep going with GSK or are they thinking of involving more companies in co-promotions?
Yasufuku: Depends!
- Vikas Dandekar
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