Novartis India has announced an exclusive sales and distribution agreement with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for a few of its established medicines which includes the Voveran range, the Calcium range and Methergine.

This arrangement aims to further broaden access of these medicines beyond the current geographies to benefit many more patients, more efficiently, by significantly extending the reach of healthcare professionals through an expanded field force.

This brings together the manufacturing and development synergies of Novartis India with the sales and distribution strengths of Dr Reddy’s.

Sanjay Murdeshwar, Country President and Managing Director, Novartis in India, said, “Today, on one hand, keeping the patient interest at the center, we have entered this strategic business arrangement with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories to extend access to our Established Medicines to benefit more patients in India efficiently. On the other hand, we understand the implication on the roles of our colleagues in Novartis India Limited and are doing our best to support them.”

Novartis has a large footprint in India with over 10,000 full time employees. Since January 2020, Novartis has hired more than 1,600 employees across the Novartis divisions and companies in India are planning to continue this hiring programme in 2022.

Over the last five years, Novartis has spent over $300 million in creating an R&D support center and services in India. Novartis is also in the process of expanding further by setting up an additional manufacturing plant at Kalwe, with an investment of approximately $49 million. This plant would manufacture oral cancer medicines for the global market.