Weight Loss News

Rimoslim, Generic Version of Rimonabant, Launched in India

23 May 2007

Just a week after Indian pharmaceutical firm Zydus Cadila announced that it has launched a generic version of Rimonabant under the name Slimona, there is another Indian firm Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd, who too has launched the generic version of Acomplia Rimonabant as Rimoslim.

According to Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Rimoslim was clinically tested at their R&D Centre where they tested it on more than 200 patients that showed encouraging results.

Talking about the clinically trails, Dr. Prasanna Kumar, an endocrinologist from Bangalore said that their studies showed that the average weight loss from Rimonabant group in the first week was around 6 kilos and he further added that he is convinced that it is by far the best therapy for obesity.

Interestingly, two years ago, India had ratified new patent legislation as a condition for joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) that most observers believed would make it more difficult for Indian pharmaceutical firms that make generics to copy the branded drugs in the future.

Rimoslim would be priced at Rupee 8 per tablet, informed Ruchir Modi, Vice-President- Marketing of Torrent.

Modi also added that its rate would make it affordable for the masses unlike the other drugs that only enjoy the patronage of the niche and upwardly-mobile section of the society.

Torrent Pharma is the flagship company of the Torrent Group who has around 600 scientists working in its Research Centre.

The Indian obesity drug market is estimated to US$50 million a year, and is reported to have gone up by 44 percent in the concluding year. According to an Indian financial paper, The Economic Times, Nutrition Foundation of Indian (NFI) study estimated that 45 percent of women and 29 percent of men in urban India are overweight