Venus Remedies bags Vancoplus patent

Mumbai : Venus Remedies Ltd. (VRL), a leading research-based pharmaceutical company in India, has bagged the patent to its product Vancoplus.

Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) from Republic of South Africa and Commissioner of Patents, Trademarks & Design, Intellectual Property office of New Zealand have granted a Product Patent to Vancoplus, one of the key research products of Venus used to combat Methilicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), the most notorious and troublesome pathogen.

Dr. Manu Chaudhary, JMD, Venus Remedies Ltd. said, ?Vancoplus is a brand of Ceftriaxone and Vancomycin along with chemical vector used in CVMC technology which has a potential to restrict production of toxin produced by MRSA. Vancoplus therapy reduces treatment time and cost and is a boon for medical field.?

MRSA infection has become increasingly difficult to treat, and can lead to death.

Most MRSAinfections occur in wounds (e.g. surgical wounds), skin (e.g. intravenous access sites), or in the bloodstream or in brain. The organism possesses several properties that contribute to its ability to cause serious disease, including the production of toxins that prove fatal.

Vancoplus is the only remedy after vaccination (used for prevention and not for cure) to treat MRSA and multi-drug resistant microbes causing meningitis, pneumonia, typhoid, septicemia, urinary tract Infection, skin and skin structure infections and Staphylococcal endocarditis, claimed the company.

Baseline data from the Pan-European Antimicrobial Resistance Using Local Surveillance (PEARLS) study of 2001-2002 showed that South Africa had a MRSA prevalence of 33.3%.

The African “meningitis belt” – which includes all or part of 21 countries, has reported more than 700000 cases of meningitis (an infection of the fluid in the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain) over the past decade.

Roughly 10-20 % of persons infected die, and one out of five survivors is likely to suffer from a permanent disability such as hearing loss, mental retardation, or paralysis. The rate of meningitis epidemics in the region has increased in recent years.

Vancoplus is an ideal therapy for Bacterial Meningitis and other Bacterial Infections.

Meningococcal disease is responsible for about 135,000 deaths globally each year, with over one million cases.

Vancoplus has been successfully launched in few markets globally and has achieved a sales of 3.5 million $ (USD) in 3 years. The product is under registration in many countries.

The patent for Vancoplus is valid till February 2026 in both the countries. The patent of this product has also been filed in US, Canada, Europe, Ukraine, Russia etc besides India and the grant is expected to be received soon.

The Pharmaceutical market size of South Africa was worth US$3.03bn in 2007 and that it should reach US$4.41bn by 2012 and the current size of the New Zealand pharmaceutical market is NZ$ 729 million (US$ 379 million).