Source: www.reuters.com

Eli Lilly and Co expects to profit from growing sales in China and Japan and is considering outsourcing manufacturing in India, Lorenzo Tallarigo, president of international operations, said in an interview on Monday.

The drugmaker aims to take advantage of the growing market for diabetes drugs in China, Tallarigo said. In Japan, Eli Lilly (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) hopes its products such as erectile dysfunction drug Cialis will sell as well as they did elsewhere, he said.

“The wave of new products that enjoyed sales success in Europe and the U.S. is just starting to pick up in Japan,” Tallarigo said.

Industry analysts have questioned whether the company will have enough new products to make up for expected plunging sales of several drugs set to lose U.S. patent protection in coming years, including chemotherapy agent Gemzar in 2010, Zyprexa in 2011, and Cymbalta in 2013.

The drugmaker said on Dec. 6 growing sales of its drugs in Japan and China would help it survive its patent protection problems, with company revenue in China likely to jump fivefold by 2015 to almost $1 billion. The Indianapolis-based company is also considering moving some production to India.

“No doubt India has great capability when it comes to manufacturing,” Tallarigo said. “We don’t have anything concrete to discuss but that is definitely something we’re going to look at.”

The group, which has manufacturing plants in several countries, expects to complete the construction of a $250 million plant in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, next year. The plant is expected to begin insulin production in 2009, Tallarigo said.

Source: www.business-standard.com

India’s largest business outsourcing company, Genpact, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Axis Risk Consulting Services, a risk consulting company. Genpact had acquired Axis in June this year for an undisclosed amount.

This was Genpact’s first acquisition in India. The acquisition will enable Genpact to add 80 clients across India, North America, Europe and Asia.

The details of the agreement have not been disclosed. The company had acquired the European SAP service provider ICE Enterprise Solutions in March for an undisclosed amount.

Axis will enable Genpact to expand its finance and accounting solutions portfolio. It will operate as an independent unit of the outsourcing company.

“The integrated risk and technology solutions that we’ll offer our US and European clients as a result of this acquisition, will take care of a lot of time and costs associated with governance and risk management,” said Genpact President and CEO Pramod Bhasin.

Axis Risk consulting managing director and founding partner Ameet Parikh will continue as its managing director. “There is a great synergy between the companies in terms of Genpact’s access to global customers and our deep domain knowledge and experience in providing best-in-class risk consulting services. We will now have the opportunity to offer our internal controls and outsourcing solutions in the global market,” he said.