Alembic Pharma to Invest Rs 100 Crore in New Facility.

AHMEDABAD: Alembic Pharmaceuticals, the newly-listed subsidiary of the 104-year Vadodara-headquartered group, will invest Rs 100 crore in a drugs facility. The new unit will make generic drugs for regulated markets, Alembic director Pranav Amin said, adding that the facility will come near its existing facility in Vadodara.

The Rs 1,500-crore Alembic is country's oldest pharma company and recently floated its realty arm. The group earlier said Alchemy Real Estate will infuse around Rs 100 crore in current financial year for its upcoming realty projects. The pharma investment will be in addition to the realty plans that include residential, commercial and infrastructure projects.

APL was carved out of Alembic Ltd in September after a year-long demerger process that culminated in listing of the new entity. Alembic shareholders will be issued Alembic Pharma shares in a 1:1 ratio.

The company better known for its cough syrup Glycodin mostly makes non-infective drugs like Azithral, Roxid, Althrocin and Wikoryl. It will now focus on drugs in the cardiac, gynecology and ophthalmology segments from the facility that would start production early next year. The group is also engaged in glassware, engineering and chemicals apart from pharma and healthcare.

Alembic hived off its core pharmaceutical division to separate its bleeding Penicillin-G (Pen-G) business that was taking a toll on its overall balancesheet. APL took over domestic formulation, international generic and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business. APL now runs three plants located at Panilav , Karakhadi and one in Baddi.

APL net sales went up 24% to at Rs 398 crore against Rs 321 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. The company's domestic formulation business rose 10% while the international generics business rose 79%. API sales grew by 47% and net profit after tax went up by 51%.

Last month, Alembic approached Gujarat High Court challenging finance ministry's decision of non-imposition of anti-dumping duty on Pen-G. A decision is awaited.

In 2007, Alembic Ltd acquired the domestic non-cancer drugs business of Dabur Pharma for Rs 159 crore to enlarge its product basket in India. The acquired brands belong to cardiovascular, diabetological and gynaecological segment. The non-oncology formulation business of Dabur was mainly into high-growth life style segments.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com