Venus Remedies gets marketing approval for cancer drugs from Philippines, Iraq

'While we have more than 140 marketing authorisations in the ASEAN region, including 110 for oncology drugs, we are banking on the product registration for bleomycin from the Philippines to pave the way for faster approval of this drug in other ASEAN countries,' said Chaudhary.

Venus Remedies has already submitted dossiers to the health ministry of the Philippines government for another 50-odd marketing authorisations. Most of these pending approvals are for oncology products.

Pertinently, Philippines, where the market size of cancer drugs was valued at $252 million in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% by 2025, also accounts for the highest revenue for Venus Remedies from the ASEAN region.

Having secured its first marketing authorisation from Iraq, the company expects this approval for gemcitabine from the $2.5-billion pharmaceutical market to facilitate the registration process in other Middle East countries as well, considering that many of them have similar regulatory requirements and processes.

Since having a product registered in Iraq, one of the largest markets in the MENA region, can provide a reference point for the registration of other products across this region, it can help streamline the registration process by providing a framework to different regulatory authorities to evaluate and compare the safety and efficacy data of new products, said the company