
Advent International to acquire stake in Felix Pharmaceuticals
, a leading global
private equity investor
, signed a definitive agreement to invest $175 million via primary and secondary for a significant minority stake in Dublin-headquartered
Felix Pharmaceuticals
, a leading global generic animal pharma player, stated a company release.
Felix
Pharma is a manufacturer of off-patent medicines for companion animals.
Felix develops, manufactures and supplies to distributors and other branded generic players for private labelling, particularly in the US. With a portfolio of 14 approved products from
USFDA
and many more under review and development, Felix has the widest portfolio of products in the industry.
'Felix is well positioned to lead this generic space with its strong leadership, broad portfolio, and robust R&D and commercial capabilities. Its rapid growth and high customer satisfaction make it a differentiated platform, and we are excited to support Neeraj and the Felix team in scaling it into a global franchise,' said Shweta Jalan, Managing Partner at Advent.
Felix was founded in 2015 by Neeraj Agrawal, Sir Jonathan Symonds and Dr Shumeet Banerji, ex-CEO of Booz-Allen. While the company achieved its first US FDA approval in 2020, marking a pivotal step in its expansion, it has quickly scaled to a 14 commercialised product portfolio and has several others in advanced stages of pipeline, it said. It has a USFDA approved oral solid facility dedicated for
animal health products
and an injectable facility that is expected to be ready by Q3 2025.
Neeraj Agrawal, Co-Founder of Felix Pharma, said, 'As we scale in a fast-evolving market, we were looking for a partner who brings not just capital, but also deep operating expertise and the right mindset and networks to help us grow faster and stronger.'

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New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Telangana minister Sridhar reveals AI university plans, asks startups to achieve ‘unicorn' status
HYDERABAD: IT Minister D Sridhar Babu on Saturday inaugurated eAppSys's newly expanded Global Innovation Centre in Hyderabad. He also announced plans to set up an AI university to offer online and offline courses for students and professionals. Speaking at the inauguration, Sridhar Babu urged companies to strive for unicorn status. He noted that while there were only three private startups valued at $1 billion or more earlier, Hyderabad now has 30 to 40. Sridhar Babu expressed hope that the new eAppSys office, currently with a 400-seat capacity, would expand four to six times in the future, bringing further recognition to the state and the city. The UK-headquartered global Oracle partner and IT services provider announced plans to grow its Hyderabad workforce from 200 professionals to over 500 within the next two years. The expansion adds a state-of-the-art, 400-seat capacity facility to its existing Global Delivery Centre, further positioning Hyderabad as a strategic hub for Oracle Cloud, ERP, AI, and enterprise transformation services. 'This investment is not just about scale—it's about delivering high-quality, agile, and impactful solutions. We are building a future-ready team that thinks globally and executes locally,' said Sujani Reddy Baddam, Director and COO of eAppSys.


The Print
a day ago
- The Print
Indian doctors more confident about oestrogen therapy for menopause as USFDA may scrap black box warning
The move came after the findings of a Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study—the largest-ever randomised controlled trial of hormone therapy in 2002—went public. The study found a combined oestrogen-progestin therapy linked to a rise in heart attacks and strokes, and a slightly elevated risk of breast and endometrial cancers. The USFDA, in 2003, mandated a black box warning—the highest level of warning associated with approved drugs when proven to be associated with serious or life-threatening adverse events—on all menopause treatments containing oestrogen, regardless of form or absorption rates. New Delhi: The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has declared its plan to remove the currently mandated, strictest health warning on oestrogen replacement therapies. The development has triggered a debate around the treatment, once widely used to manage menopausal symptoms but later linked to harmful side effects, such as cancer. However, the FDA panel, which held a discussion telecast publicly last month, was of the view that at least local oestrogen therapy, such as vaginal cream, is safe and should not carry the same warnings as systemically delivered oestrogen via patches or pills taken orally. The panel suggested that the risks associated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) likely were overstated. The FDA has now invited submission of broad, public comments on the risks and benefits related to menopause hormone therapy, including 'data that could support updates to the labelling of such products'. Typically occurring between the ages of 45 and 55, menopause is the cessation of menstruation and the decline in ovarian function. This biological process comes with hormonal fluctuations, mainly the lowering of oestrogen and progesterone levels, which can lead to a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. A hallmark symptom of menopause is hot flashes, characterised by sudden waves of heat, flushing, and sweating, often accompanied by palpitations and feelings of anxiety. Additionally, many women experience night sweats while the drop in oestrogen levels has links to a marked rise in mood swings and behavioural changes, vaginal dryness, adverse bone health, cardiovascular events, and the risk of breast cancer. HRT had been a common approach since the 1970s to manage menopausal symptoms by supplementing the body with oestrogen, progesterone, or both. However, since 2000, following the WHI findings, most doctors and patients worldwide have been cautious in recommending or using it, and its popularity has dramatically dropped. In India, where HRT is available in the form of pills, vaginal creams, and topical cream applied on the arms, but no implants or patches, like in the US, there is no country-specific box warning, which is mandatory for the products in India. India never updated the official regulatory stance to reflect the advanced risk-benefit understanding associated with the treatment. However, experts maintained that clinicians had been hesitant in prescribing it. Now, many, including those in India, believe the situation will change. 'I am glad at the development concerning the warning status related to HRT for menopause,' Dr Archana Dwiwedi, the chair of the mid-life committee in the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), told ThePrint. A large number of women undergoing menopause or post-menopause can benefit majorly from HRT but remain deprived of it, mainly on account of evidence that may now be outdated, she said, adding that current scientific understanding is that HRT's benefits for most women far outweigh the risks. Also Read: What is the 'women's health gap' and how to close it 'Evolving' evidence In 1991, the National Institutes of Health in the US launched the WHI, a $625 million, long-term, randomised controlled study to investigate ways to prevent the leading causes of death and disability in postmenopausal women. The WHI recruited 1,61,808 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 for its study, and over 68,000 participated in one of three clinical trial arms—hormone therapy, diet modification, or calcium and vitamin D supplementation. The hormone therapy trial, intended to last nine years, would evaluate the long-term health impacts of the two most common HRT regimens at the time—conjugated equine estrogen (CEE-oestrogen derived from the urine of pregnant mares) plus progestin, or synthetic progesterone for women with a uterus and CEE alone for others who underwent a hysterectomy and no longer had a uterus. Eleven years later, the NIH announced that it was stopping the oestrogen-plus-progestin arm of the trial early, citing increased rates of blood clots, stroke, heart attacks, and breast cancer in women taking the combined hormone therapy. These findings led to a dramatic shift in the usage pattern of HRT globally, with a large number of patients and doctors abandoning it overnight. However, experts now say the WHI findings have since come under intense scrutiny, and an understanding has evolved that the results, which profoundly impacted the use of HRT, could have been skewed. For instance, the trial participants were old—63-year-olds on average—who in any case have a high baseline risk for cardiovascular conditions. Also, a follow-up study, which came out in 2024, concluded that HRT is safe and beneficial for most healthy women with bothersome menopause symptoms if they start it in the years shortly after menopause begins. 'The latest versions of HRT are also far safer and can make life easier for a high percentage of women, who face bothersome health challenges in the menopause stage, which severely affects their quality of life,' Dwiwedi said. There, however, are some sceptics too. 'I suspect the pharmaceutical industry pushed the latest FDA development. While the FDA panel batting for warning labels in the HRT shared a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest they are safe, why was there not any scientific presentations to back those claims?' asked a gynaecologist with AlIMS Delhi, who did not wish to be named. However, while there is no clarity on whether the FDA will remove the requirement of black box warnings on all HRT for menopause, several of the panel members made a strong case for at least local oestrogen therapies, with comparatively low level of oestrogen, for symptoms such as vaginal dryness and urinary issues, as opposed to systemic therapies in the form of pills and implants. Some Indian clinicians agree with this argument. Vaginal oestrogen cream, mainly prescribed based on requirement, is not for a systemic replacement of oestrogen, but for local reasons, such as dryness or burning sensation, or poor urinary control or poor comfort level in terms of intercourse, said gynaecologist Dr Hemanandini Jayaraman from Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru. She said that the absorption of vaginal creams into the body is negligible, so no enhanced risk or risk factors are associated with the creams, which women generally use for local reasons. 'As far as continuing the vaginal application is concerned, if a patient gets symptomatic relief, which is extremely good, it can be safely pursued for a longer duration of time,' the clinician added. However, she also maintained that HRT, even in the form of oral prescription, could be safe provided there is regular monitoring of the users. Also Read: Over 50% of Indian women are anaemic. We need health literacy, support groups: Shabana Azmi Attitudes towards HRT in India India has nearly 15 crore women estimated to be postmenopausal, and roughly 30-40 percent of them could be considered potential candidates for HRT. 'These are women who are symptomatic and have no contraindications, such as prior hormone-sensitive cancers or high clotting risk, typically considered suitable candidates for HRT,' the Federation of Obstetrics & Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) member said. However, according to estimates, less than five percent of women receive HRT. Currently, India follows a global prescription for norms for hormone therapy, including the USFDA as well as European guidelines. And while there is no equivalent to the FDA's black box warning on systemic risks like breast cancer, stroke, or clots here, the Indian drug monographs and medical literature still describe side effects for estrogen therapy, such as deep vein thrombosis, hypertension, breast and endometrial cancer, and dementia. Moreover, the guidelines from Indian expert groups mirror international concerns about systemic oestrogen use in women with certain risk factors, usually after age 60 or more than 10 postmenopause years, pointed out Dr Sweta Kumar, a gynaecologist and obstetrician with Surya Mother and Child Super Speciality Hospital in Pune. While many gynaecologists in India are aware of HRT and do prescribe it to some patients, a significant number are hesitant or prefer alternative options. Younger or less experienced clinicians tend to be more cautious, and alternative therapies are still quite common in practice, Kumar said. According to the 2025 national cross-sectional survey of 514 young Indian obstetricians-gynaecologists, the combined oestrogen-progestin therapy for vasomotor symptoms was recommended by 83 percent of the practitioners with three years' or below-three years' experience. When their experience range was seven to 10 years, fewer practitioners, 77 percent, recommended it. Moreover, younger doctors (0–3 years) were found less likely to support early initiation of therapy—30 percent of them—compared to more experienced ones—49 percent of them. A large number of patients also find HRT risky and are hesitant to use it, Dr N.S. Saradha, a senior gynaecologist with SIMS Hospital in Chennai, underlined. 'Women experiencing early or surgical menopause, accelerated bone loss, and high risk of osteoporosis benefit the most from HRT. I hope with the evolving understanding around HRT, both doctors and patients can make informed decisions on its usage,' Saradha said. (Edited by Madhurita Goswami) Also Read: AI can aid in early, precise detection of breast cancer, show results of 1st randomised trial


Economic Times
2 days ago
- Economic Times
50% US tariff on Indian goods could shave 0.3% off GDP in FY26: Moody's
Synopsis Moody's Ratings projects that the US's 50% tariff on Indian goods could reduce India's economic growth by 0.3 percentage points in 2025-26. This widened tariff gap compared to other Asia-Pacific nations may hinder India's manufacturing ambitions, especially in high-value sectors. SBI estimates India's fuel import bill could rise significantly if Russian oil imports cease. The 50% tariff on Indian goods announced by the US could reduce India's economic growth by about 0.3 percentage points, bringing it down from the projected 6.3% for 2025-26, Moody's Ratings said on Friday. However, it added that strong domestic demand and a resilient services sector would help cushion the impact."Beyond 2025, the much wider tariff gap compared with other Asia-Pacific countries would severely curtail India's ambitions to develop its manufacturing sector, particularly in higher value-added sectors such as electronics, and may even reverse some of the gains made in recent years in attracting related investments," said the New York-headquartered credit rating Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, as penalty for importing oil from Russia, raising the total tariff to 50%. The 25% additional tariff will kick in on August time in between offers an opportunity for negotiations between the two countries. Moody's Ratings said India's response to the developments will play a key role in shaping its economic outlook, inflation and external position. In contrast, other Asian countries face significantly lower tariffs- Japan (15%), Thailand (19%) and Vietnam and Bangladesh (20% each).The additional 25% tariff increases the "potential strain because it widens the gap compared with the 15-20% tariff rates for other countries in Asia-Pacific", said Moody's Ratings. In a separate report, State Bank of India (SBI) said that if India halts Russian oil imports for the rest of this financial year, its fuel import bill could increase by $9 billion in 2025-26 and $11.7 billion in accounts for about 35% of India's oil imports. However, India has diversified its sources of supply to about 40 countries, with more supply coming onto the market from Guyana, Brazil and Canada, SBI such as pharmaceuticals and electronics are currently exempted from the US tariffs."A possible tariff of 50% on pharma exports may hit earnings of pharma companies by 5-10% in FY26, as many big pharma companies' revenue from the US stood in the range of 40-50%," said the SBI the US will also suffer, according to SBI, as India plays a crucial role in the global supply of affordable, high-quality essential medicines, particularly life-saving oncology drugs, antibiotics and chronic diseases treatments.