Alkem Laboratories, a 700-crore pharma company, is planning to enter the capital market with an Initial Public Offer (IPO) within one year. Initially, the shares will be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"We hope the process for the IPO will be completed within one year," said Samprada Singh, chairman, Alkem Laboratories. As the market is doing well now, we hope it will be the best time for an IPO, he added. But he refused to divulge more details.

"As Alkem Laboratories is one of the leading pharma companies in India, it will be a good kind of IPO," opined a leading pharma analyst. And also the pharma industry is going well now. It will be the right time for the IPO, he added.

The Mumbai-based Alkem Laboratories has a strong presence in anti-bacterial, pain management, cardiovascular, anti-diabetic and neuropsychiatric drug segments. Alkem is regarded as leading player in cephalosporins formulations in India. It has recently launched Cefepime, under the brand name Megapime, a broad spectrum fourth generation injectable cephalosporin. Alkem has received UK MHRA approval for both orals and injectable cephalosporins.

Recently, Alkem commenced operations of a Bioequivalence centre-Phoenix Bio-Pharma Research Centre- a state-of the -art centre, approved by DCGI, where several bio-equivalence studies have already been undertaken.

Alkem has manufacturing facilities in Taloja, Daman, Ankleshwar and Bhiwandi. In addition, Alkem is constructing a huge factory as per regulatory requirements of US and Europe in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. The factory will be operational from March 2005.