Under terms of the agreement, Takeda granted Ranbaxy a non-exclusive royalty free license to its US patents covering Actos. Ranbaxy has certainty in the launch of its generic equivalent formulation of Actos on August 17, 2012, or earlier under certain circumstances.
Actos is a once-daily oral prescription medication that, with diet and exercise, has been shown to be effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. As per the data from IMS Health, Actos had approximately $3.4bn in brand sales for the twelve months ending December 31, 2009.
Jim Meehan, vice president of sales and distribution for RPI, said: “This agreement will allow RPI to bring to patients with diabetes a generic alternative in this important therapeutic area.”