France's Sanofi Goes Subcontinental With Torrent Pharma

French drugmaker Sanofi has entered into a joint venture with major Indian firm Torrent Pharmaceuticals. Under their agreement, the two companies will have equal ownership of a new JV, going under the name of Sanofi Torrent India. The JV will make and market both partners' products in India, and is slated to generate sales of around $50 million by the year 2000.

The Indian market has been the subject of a number of recent "pharma forays" for western pharmaceutical companies (Marketletters passim), and this latest is expected to afford Sanofi a presence in the Indian market and, Sanofi says, consolidate its strategic growth in India "which is expected to experience strong growth in the forthcoming years."

Torrent Pharmaceuticals, the flagship company of the Torrent Group, has three facilities in the state of Gujarat, north of Bombay, which produce a range of products, especially cardiovasculars, central nervous system drugs, gastrointestinals and anti-infective agents in all dosage forms, and operates a network of more than 700 medical sales representatives covering all parts of India.