For Strides, the other regulated market segment comprises of all regulated markets outside of the United States and Japan. Considering our current expansion program, we are leveraging our portfolio and hybrid R&D capabilities to capitalise on the market opportunities in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Canada.

Europe

The European pharmaceutical market is over $177b, of which the generic opportunity contributes to over $50b. It is a highly diverse market given the macroeconomic diversity of regions within Europe. It is unlikely that any product commercialisation favouring Western Europe will also have the same advantage in the Eastern or Southern Europe. Hence, our presence in Europe is specific to the regions we have forayed.

United Kingdom (UK) is the anchor market for us in the European continent, representing an $11b generic opportunity. Our business in this market is operated by our subsidiary Strides Pharma UK Limited, and we have been a reliable supplier of high-quality generics to Tier 1 & Tier 2 wholesalers in the retail sector as well as National Health Service (NHS) through Commercial Medicines Unit (CMU) tenders. We also have heritage OTC brands in the retail space and are looking at expanding our presence in products with integration advantage given our manufacturing capabilities in India and Italy. Our UK operations continue to be the springboard for Strides to penetrate the other European opportunities.
In Europe, outside of the UK, we have an emerging presence predominantly in the Nordics and Western Europe. The business is mostly built on IP-led partnerships and B2B focussed strategy around niche molecules with limited competition. As we make further inroads, we are benefiting from our portfolio maximisation drive. Our market expansion is led through partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Mediterranean region

Australia

The Australian pharmaceutical market represents a knowledge-based, technology-intensive industry which is driven by good market access to pharmaceutical drugs, higher generic penetration, increasing awareness of the lifestyle and chronic diseases and the subsidised cost of prescription medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for all eligible patients.
The country landscape bodes well with the Strides' scarcity driven business model. We were one of the early entrants to the market in the year 2007-08. Operating as Arrow Pharmaceuticals (Arrow), we were also amongst the top 3 generics companies of Australia between 2015 and 2019.
In July 2019, Strides exited its front-end Australia operations to focus on supply-chain led growth driven by the most significant IP-led portfolio of 140+ products integrated to our TGA approved global manufacturing base. Subsequently, we have entered into a preferred long-term supply contract with Arrotex Australia Group (Arrotex), an entity formed through the merger of Arrow and Apotex Australia. Arrotex is Australia’s largest generic pharmaceutical and private label OTC business, with around 50% market share of the Australian generic pharmacy market.

South Africa

The South African market, valued at $3.4b, is the largest in Sub-Sahara Africa. Unlike, the other African markets, which are mostly semi-regulated, South Africa follows a stringent regulatory framework and the market is not readily accessible to players. We forayed this market through the acquisition of Trinity Pharma and are incubating its strategy on a combination of businesses. While we are leveraging the distribution of products through pharmacy chains and mail order systems, we are also building a strong base with portfolio maximisation to improve our IP landscape and participate in the local ARV and Non-ARV opportunities through a steady regional footprint.

Canada

The Canadian opportunity of $7b is an organic lever for Strides. We believe this market benefits the most from our learning curve of development and commercialisation in the regulated markets. We are building a greenfield business in Canada across the generics, private label OTCs, and the branded OTC extension from its portfolios in several markets. We recently acquired 80% stake in Pharmapar Inc. (Pharmapar), a Canada-based specialised generics front-end Company to head-start in the Quebec market with an established front-end and distribution network.
In the other regulated markets, our focus remains on leveraging our portfolio developed for the US and Australia to build out a low investment high return opportunity. We are likely to benefit as the cost of organic strategy in these markets will be minimum for us as we are leveraging the R&D heads up for the US and Australia. We continue to steadily accelerate hybrid R&D model with future development aimed to be responsive to global regulatory needs while staying focused on quality compliance and manufacturing flexibility.