SINGAPORE--FiercePharmaAsia rounds up company activity in Asia across pharmaceuticals, biotech and devices to stay abreast of deal making and provide insight on partnerships and disputes in the works.
> India's Lupin and Poland's Celon Pharma said they have joined to develop a generic dry-powder inhaler that Lupin is to produce for key markets such as Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Celon's inhaler is a version of GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK) 2014 $7 billion seller, Advair Diskus that delivers fluticasone/salmeterol treatment for asthma.
- here's the release
> Lupin has also been sued by U.S.-based Roxane Laboratories for patent infringement involving an application for a generic version of the PhosLo Gelcaps renal-disease drug of Germany's Fresenius.
Roxane, which has U.S. rights for the calcium acetate drug, filed the suit in the New Jersey District Court. The drug is intended for reducing serum phosphorous in patients with end-stage renal disease.
- here's the JDSupra report
> China's WuXi PharmaTech ($WX) has borrowed a $165 million credit line from a consortium of Asia banks led by Citibank to allow it to invest in several new businesses.
WuXi noted a growing demand for its services, requiring the building of small-molecule production plants in Changzhou, biologics commercial production facilities in Wuxi City and two cell-therapy plants in the United States. The first two are to cost $150 million each, and the U.S. plant $40 million.
- here's the release
> Israel's Integrity Applications Inc. and two Hong Kong-based companies signed distribution agreements for the GlucoTrack blood glucose measuring device of its subsidiary, Integrity Applications Ltd.
The Hong Kong partners are LifeCaring Technologies and Guangzhou Guang Yuan Biological Pharmaceutical, the latter also operating on the China mainland. The agreement was based on a forecast of $20 million in mainland sales by Guangzhou Guang in the first year and $400,000 by LifeCaring.
- here's the release