The Indian pharma machinery manufacturers basically deal with reactors, compressors, driers, mixers, granulators, oral / liquid / capsule filling machines. Reactors are basically used in bulk drugs and intermediates. In the case of equipments used in the research and development by pharma companies, domestic manufacturers have not been able to meet the customers' expectations. Even if domestic players have tried to duplicate the products manufactured by MNCs, they have failed in developing quality products. The domestic players lack the technology know-how and fail in producing products that are compact. Process automation is also lacking in India, KK Varadarajan, deputy general manager- marketing (South East), Buchi SMP Services told Pharmabiz.

There are some domestic players who had been successful in exporting the machinery to African and Gulf countries. About 90 per cent of the machinery is served for Indian pharma companies and the remaining 10 per cent is exported to potential markets. Worldwide, pharma machinery manufacturers based in the US, Germany, UK and Switzerland had been ruling the industry. The scope for manufacturing and marketing pharma machinery is naturally more in the countries where pharma industry is active, he added.

Commenting on the demand for the quality machinery in the country, Varadarajan said, only big companies used to care about quality machinery in the beginning, but with newer opportunities emerging in the field of contract manufacturing, medium scale companies rushed to make themselves equipped to reap the benefits by acquiring good machines and to fulfill GMP requirements. Both drugs and pharma machinery manufacturers should adhere to safety norms rather than merely looking at enhancing production.

Buchi SMP, is the authorised distributor for Buchi Labortechnik, Switzerland has achieved a turnover of Rs. 15 crore in the last calendar year. And is targeting to achieve over Rs. 18 crore this year. Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai had been the good markets for the company. The company's 'Rotavapour' has been sold to about 3000 companies in India, he revealed.

Buchi Labortechnik, is a leading manufacturer of laboratory instruments for the pharmaceutical industry, and has a 10 percent stake in Buchi SMP. Buchi Labortechnik manufactures rotavapors, vacuum pumps and controllers, sepacore preparative chromatography system, kjeldhal nitrogen and protein determination system, glass drying ovens, kugelrohr apparatus, automatic melting point apparatus, mini spray driers, chiller, syncore parallel synthesizer, near infrared spectrometer, and moisture analyser.

Buchi's products are sold in 130 countries worldwide, and Europe, US, Asia are key potential markets. Japan, China and India are at prime focus of the company in the Asian region. With advancements in technology and increase in competition, Buchi desires to retain its customers with its quality products. The company has products that cater to the needs of pharmaceutical, chemical, and nutrition based industries. India ranks 8th in terms of its sales, and thus is a key market for the company. Buchi's clients include Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's, Dabur, Aurobindo, Matrix, Nicholas Piramal, Sun Pharma, IICT and IITs all over India etc.