Hetero Drugs is an Indian

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

company and the world’s largest producer of anti-retroviral drugs. Hetero’s business includes APIs, generics, biosimilars, custom pharmaceutical services, and branded generics.

Operations

Hetero group employs over 21,000 people. Hetero is a player in the

active pharmaceutical ingredients An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. Th ...

market and finished dosages. It has marketing presence in over 127 countries. Hetero has supplied antiretroviral drugs to patients across more than 100 countries globally. Today,

Oseltamivir Oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu, is an antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza A and influenza B, viruses that cause the flu. Many medical organizations recommend it in people who have complications or are at hig ...

, sold under its brand name Fluvir, is also indicated for A 1N1virus, also known as

swine flu Swine influenza is an infection caused by any of several types of swine influenza viruses. Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) refers to any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As o ...

. Hetero also produces hepatitis C antivirals such as Sofovir (

sofosbuvir Sofosbuvir, sold under the brand name Sovaldi among others, is a medication used to treat hepatitis C. It is taken Oral administration, by mouth. Common side effects include fatigue, headache, nausea, and trouble sleeping. Side effects are gen ...

) and Ledifos (a fixed-dose combination of

and

ledipasvir Ledipasvir is a drug for the treatment of hepatitis C that was developed by Gilead Sciences. After completing Phase III clinical trials, on February 10, 2014, Gilead filed for U.S. approval of a ledipasvir/sofosbuvir fixed-dose combination table ...

Company structure

Hetero Group's subsidiaries include Hetero Drugs, Hetero Labs, Hetero Research Foundation, Genx Laboratories and also foreign subsidiaries such as Camber Pharma Inc. in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Hetero Europe in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, Amarox Pharma Global in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and Richmond Labs in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The group is also investing in the wind power industry with a goal to reach 1000 megawatts by 2017.

2009 Swine flu outbreak

In 2009, as the

outbreak was spreading across the globe and various health organizations and government agencies were piling up stocks of Oseltamivir as precautionary measures, Hetero supplied generic Oseltamivir under its brand name Fluvir. Hetero delivered 10 million doses of Oseltamivir to the Indian government in 2009, and shipped about 80 million doses to over 60 countries. Hetero received its second order from Indian government to supply another 10 million doses of Oseltamivir later in 2009.

COVID-19 experimental drugs

The company has launched the generic version of experimental

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

drug ''

Remdesivir Remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, Text was copied from this source which is © European Medicines Agency. Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged. is a broad-spectrum antiviral medication developed by the ...

'' under brand name Covifor after acquiring license from

Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...

and obtaining approval from

CDSCO The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is India's national regulatory body for cosmetics , pharmaceuticals and medical devices. It serves a similar function to the European Medicines Agency of the European Union, the PMDA of Jap ...

, the Indian drug control authority. On July 29, 2020 the company launched its version of the anti viral drug

Favipiravir Favipiravir, sold under the brand name Avigan among others, is an antiviral medication used to treat influenza in Japan. It is also being studied to treat a number of other viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2. Like the experimental antiviral ...

under the brand name Favivir, after getting approval from

Drugs Controller General of India Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is the head of department of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization of the Government of India responsible for approval of licences of specified categories of drugs such as blood and blood p ...

(DCGI), used in the treatment of mild to moderate

patients. On November 27, 2020, Hetero Labs signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to manufacture 100 million doses of the

Sputnik V vaccine Sputnik V (russian: Спутник V, the brand name from RDIF) or Gam-COVID-Vac (russian: Гам-КОВИД-Вак, the name under which it is legally registered and produced) is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine for COVID-19 developed by t ...

References

{{Authority control Pharmaceutical companies of India Manufacturing companies based in Hyderabad, India Pharmaceutical companies established in 1993 1993 establishments in Andhra Pradesh