Date:07/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/07/stories/2006100701470200.htm

Ranbaxy signs pact with Canadian co

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Oct. 6

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc said on Friday that it signed a second licensing and supply agreement with Canada-based pharma company Janssen-Ortho Inc. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd will market and sell the generic Fentanyl patch, under the label RAN Fentanyl Transdermal System.

Classified as an opioid analgesic drug, the drug is prescribed for moderate to severe chronic pain management. The Canadian market is the eighth largest in the world for the drug. The company expects the market for a generic Fentanyl patch to reach CAD 50 Million.

Ranbaxy, which started operations in Canada in September 2005, licensed the first generic in the country in July. That time too it partnered with Janssen-Ortho Inc psychotic disorder drug Risperidone that sells under the Ranbaxy label.