Actavis Group, the fifth largest generic drug company in the world in terms of revenue has announced the opening of new premises for its subsidiary, Lotus Labs in Bangalore. The parent company is headquartered in Iceland.
The new premises will house offices, laboratories and facilities for clinical bio-equivalence studies. About 200 to 300 people will work in the production plant, which has a total area of about 3,000 square metres. The current investment is EU 3 million and this is addition to the EU 20 million, which provided earlier.
The opening of the new premises represents an important step in the development of Actavis' operations in India, stated company officials.
Iceland's Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Porgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdóttir, inaugurated the new premises in the presence of Iceland's newly-appointed Ambassador to India, Sturla Sigurjonsson, and a trade delegation from Iceland currently on a visit to India.
Stefan Jokull Sveinsson, chief executive of Actavis' R&D, stated, "Actavis' success has been built on strong local roots and this expansion of the company's activity in India is in line with our ongoing strategy of drawing on the large skill base and expertise in the region, and extending our reach to drive future growth. Actavis has plans for further expansion by opening a centre for stability studies which will provide additional support for the group's operations in Europe and the US. The company also plans to use Lotus Labs' old premises for other activities, such as development of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)."
Actavis is a fast growing company, with modern development and manufacturing facilities in Europe, the US and Asia and an extensive sales and marketing network in five continents. In December 2005 the human generics business of Alpharma became part of the Actavis Group, creating one of the five leading generic pharmaceutical companies in the world, with 10,000 employees in over 30 countries.
The group offers one of the broadest portfolios in the generics sector and a wide variety of products in development and registration, enabling it to provide its customers with a wide range of affordable high quality pharmaceuticals. Actavis has a leading market position in the world's largest markets for generic pharmaceutical products.
During the past year Actavis has greatly expanded its operations in India, investing approximately euro 20 million in Lotus Labs, a pharmaceutical research company, in February 2005. Lotus, which was founded in 2001, has its headquarters in Bangalore and employs about 260 people. It specialises in clinical studies and bioavailability studies of pharmaceuticals.
The company entered into partnership agreements with three Indian pharmaceutical companies last year: Emcure, Shasun and Orchid. The agreements with Emcure involve contract manufacturing for the US market; those with Shasun and Orchid concern both manufacture and development of pharmaceuticals. The agreements secure lower supply cost and also substantially expand the group's capacity in the field of product development. Actavis has four employees in India working only on commercial development, implementing agreements and seeking out new opportunities for the group.