Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, India.

History
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1977 by Gracias Saldanha as a generic drug and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer. He named the company after his two sons. The company initially sold its products in India, Russia, and Africa. The company went public in India in 1999, and used some of the proceeds to build its first research facility. Saldanha's son Glenn took over as CEO in 2001, having returned to India after working at PricewaterhouseCoopers. By 2008 Glenmark was the fifth-biggest pharmaceutical company in India.

By 2011 the founder of the company was one of the richest men in India, and Glenmark had worldwide sales of $778 million, a 37% increase over the last year's sales; the growth was driven by Glenmark's entry into the US and European generics markets.

In the mid-2010s the generics industry in general began transitioning to the end of an era of giant patent cliffs in the pharmaceutical industry; patented drugs with sales of around $28 billion were set to come off patent in 2018, but in 2019 only about $10 billion in revenue was set to open for competition, and less the next year. Companies in the industry responded with consolidation or trying to generate new, patented drugs.

Glenn Saldanha took the company down the path of seeking innovation, which was controversial within the company and with shareholders. The company focused on new drugs and biosimilars in the fields of cancer, dermatology and respiratory diseases, which it sought to monetize by partnering with major pharmaceutical companies.

In 2016 it had four such drugs in clinical trials. Its R&D developed a drug to treat asthma and COPD and licensed this to North America and Japan. It also licensed out a new diabetes drug to the German Merck. For the financial year 2016–2017 its sales were around 81 billion INR (ca. $1.25 billion), making it the fourth-biggest Indian pharmaceutical company.

In May 2019, Yasir Rawjee was elected as CEO of Glenmark Life Sciences.

On 29 January 2024 Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and its subsidiary, Ichnos Sciences Inc., initiated a collaboration to form Ichnos Glenmark Innovation (IGI) aimed at accelerating the development of innovative cancer treatments. IGI announced a robust pipeline comprising three oncology molecules presently undergoing clinical trials, focusing on multiple myeloma, acute myeloid leukemia, and solid tumors. Notably, two of these molecules have received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Selected products
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals announced that it entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Australia's Sequirus to commercialize its nasal spray Ryaltris which is a fixed-dose combination nasal spray of an antihistamine and a steroid, as a treatment for seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR). Ryaltris (olopatadine hydrochloride [665 mcg] and mometasone furoate [25 mcg]), formerly GSP 301 Nasal Spray, has been conditionally accepted by the FDA as the brand name.

In June 2020, the company launched a potential COVID-19 drug Favipiravir under the brand name FabiFlu in India  after studies found that there was some benefit of the drug in COVID-19 treatment. In August 2020, they also rolled out a higher strength version of FabiFlu.

In 2024, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals introduced a biosimilar variant of the anti-diabetic drug Liraglutide, marking a pioneering endeavor within the Indian pharmaceutical landscape. This product launch additionally signifies Glenmark's entry into the domain of injectable anti-diabetic therapies.

On 25 January 2024 Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals and 3D Medicines announce the signing of a License agreement to develop, register, commercialize, Envafolimab for the oncology indication for India, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Russia, CIS, and Latin America.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals announced on January 31 that they have collaborated with Pfizer to launch Abrocitinib - which is an oral treatment for moderate-to-severe cases of atopic dermatitis or AD. The drug which is originally developed by Pfizer will be sold under the brand name JABRYUS by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.