Major Taiwanese API Makers to Exhibit in 2012 CPhI/ICSE in Madrid

2012/10/08 Taipei, Oct. 8, 2012 (CENS)--Several major pharmaceutical companies from Taiwan will display products at the 2012 CPhI/ICSE, the world`s largest active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) event in Madrid, Spain held October 9-11. The local players include ScinoPharm Taiwan, Ltd., SCI Pharmtech Inc., and Formosa Laboratories, Inc., who will showcase their slimming drug API, with China Biotech Corporation (CBC) trying to compete with global counterparts in immunosuppressive preparation products. C.H. Huang, CBC`s vice president, says the event in Madrid is the longest-running, most important, and biggest-sized API trade fair globally, and will attract almost all international players. Industry sources say many Taiwanese API makers focus on slimming drugs, whose global market is an estimated US$2.4 billion. The American slimming-drug market is valued at US$1.1 billion per year, with 78 million Americans or 35.7% of the global population suffering from obesity. The slimming-drug market is forecast to grow at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% until 2017, when the market will expand to some US$3.4 billion. ScinoPharm supplies 15 to 20-tons of slimming drug API per year for Qsymia, a new diet drug produced by Vivus, and the volume is expected to double by 2013. However, institutional investors in Taiwan say Vivus` application for commercialization of the drug in Europe faces obstacles. SCI reportedly is a major supplier of intermediates to Belviq, an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved anti-obesity prescription drug produced by Arena. The FDA has asked Arena to provide additional data, and the market debut of Belviq is expected to be in the first or second quarter of 2013. Formosa Laboratories is already a major material supplier for Xenical made by Roche, maker of a popular anti-obesity drug, whose patent expiry in the near future is driving API makers to target business opportunities from the US$500 million-per-year market.(by Quincy Liang)