As part of its business strategy to build a meaningful and differentiating presence in Global Oncology Therapy market, Sun Pharma has announced the roll-out of Gemcitabine InfuSMART in Europe. InfuSMART is a technology in which oncology products are developed in a Ready-To-Administer (RTA) bag.

With the roll-out of Gemcitabine InfuSMART, Sun Pharma becomes world's first pharmaceutical company to manufacture and launch a licensed RTA oncology product. This innovatively differentiated product will have a shelf life of two years. Over the next few months, Sun Pharma will launch Gemcitabine InfuSMART across Netherlands, UK, Spain, Germany, Italy & France.

Sun Pharma received regulatory approval to produce Gemcitabine InfuSMART in eight key SKUs. The InfuSMART concept involves dose banding practice whereby, through agreement between prescribers and pharmacists, standardized doses of intravenous cytotoxic drugs are used for ranges (or 'bands') of doses calculated for individual patients. More InfuSMART oncology products are currently in Sun Pharma's pipeline to be rolled out in the future.

Commenting on the roll-out of InfuSMART in Europe, Ms Hellen de Kloet, Business Head - Western Europe & ANZ, Sun Pharma said, "Sun Pharma's Gemcitabine InfuSMART ready-to-administer infusion products provide the combined advantage of long stable compounded medicine along with safety. Its ready availability for treatment can make a difference to the healthcare worker and patients. Traditionally such medicines are compounded at hospitals (in-house) or outsourced to compounding pharmacies making it a time-consuming and potentially hazardous process. Launch of InfuSMART will help us remain a meaningful player in the global oncology therapy market by offering differentiating cancer treatment solutions. We believe there are opportunities for us to expand our portfolio of ready-to-administer products across multiple therapies where time and safety are an important element of treatment."

The NHS (UK) has been encouraging development of licensed RTA products. It has issued guidelines for hospitals for procuring such medicines. The launch of Gemcitabine InfuSMART offers Sun Pharma a definite first-mover advantage in Europe for cancer treatment. The Gemcitabine InfuSMART RTA infusion bag is developed at Sun Pharma's R&D centre in India.