Arch Pharma sets up API plants

Mumbai: Arch Pharmalabs has set up four manufacturing plants at Gurgaon at an investment of Rs 50 crore to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) targeted at the regulated US and European markets.

Christened as ‘Project Paschim’, the facility was formally inaugurated today by Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy, said a company press release.

The facility has four manufacturing plants, effluent treatment facilities and a pilot plant for contract manufacturing. The facility will initially manufacture APIs in the cardiovascular, immuno-suppressant, anti-retrovirals (HIV) and anti-malarial space, said Ajit Kamath, managing director, Arch Pharmalabs.

The site is expected to face inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of 2008. The facility will help contribute close to Rs 250 crore to the topline of Arch Pharmalabs. It planned to file a minimum of 6 drug master files every year, added Kamath.

Arch Pharmalabs has manufacturing units in Mumbai, Hyderabad and has API supply agreements with companies such as Codexis Inc (US) and DSM (the Netherlands) for co-development and manufacture of APIs and advanced intermediates used in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The Gurgaon site is expected to be the site for launch of various APIs under these partnership agreements, said the release.

The company is also looking for takeovers in the matured European markets to spur revenues beyond the Rs 1,000 crore mark by 2010. It is looking at acquiring mediums sized firms with a topline of $100 million.

Kamath said the company wanted to leverage its cost-effective operations in India coupled with the European firms presence in the continent.

The company has set a target to become a Rs 1,000 crore firm by 2010. It would close the current financial year with a topline of Rs 500 crore, he added.

Overseas business is likely to contribute nearly 20 per cent to the company’s turnover in the current financial year but it expects revenues from exports to dip in the near future.

“When we started the company in 1999, exports formed nearly 70 per cent of our revenues which has dipped down to 20 per cent and is likely to slip further with global pharma firms setting up manufacturing base in India,” Kamath said.