Pharma major Venus Remedies Ltd on Thursday said it has secured marketing authorisation from Saudi Arabia for Docetaxel — a widely used chemotherapy drug. The development comes three months after the company received good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) for all its production facilities at its unit in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

The demand for Docetaxel has been steadily increasing the world over with the rising incidence of breast, prostate, stomach and non-small cell lung cancers, for which, this chemotherapy drug is used as a first line of treatment, said the company in a statement.

Docetaxel-based treatment has particularly improved the survival rate among men in castration-sensitive prostate cancers, it said.

The USD 102-billion global Docetaxel market is projected to grow to USD 184 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 10.22 per cent, it added.

“This approval will enable us to solidify our existing foothold in the GCC and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions by streamlining the registration process for our oncology drugs there, ultimately benefiting a large population in need of advanced cancer treatments,” said Saransh Chaudhary, President, Global Critical Care, Venus Remedies.