The Chennai-based Bafna Pharmaceuticals Ltd is setting up a new modern tablets and capsule making facility, besides a dry injectables unit as part of its expansion plans.

Talking to Pharmabiz, B Mahaveer Bafna, managing director, said the new factory, coming up at a four acre plot at Redhills, North Chennai, would have capacity to manufacture 1,50,000 capsules per hour. The current factory at Madhavaram in Chennai with 112 employees has a production capacity of 27 lakh tablets and capsules per day, and the expansion is part of expanding business to different continents.

The new facility at a built up area of 60,000 sq.ft, will conform to world class manufacturing standards, with approval from the Medicine Control Agency (MCA) of UK. The new factory will employ about 65 people. The project, likely to be commissioned by June next year, is coming up at an investment of Rs 10.27 crore, said Mahaveer Bafna.

Besides, a sophisticated dry injectable plant for manufacturing about 14 life-saving drugs will come up within the new factory premises. The project, tentatively estimated at an investment of another Rs 6 crore, is likely to be commissioned by November 2005.

He said that Bafna, which manufactures 47 capsules, tablets and syrups in the field of antibiotics, ant-diabetics, analgesics and anti-cold segments, exports majority of its products. The export turnover for last year stood at Rs 17 crore. Sri Lanka is the main market for Bafna, contributing more than 90 per cent of its export turnover. Curently, Bafna also exports three products to Malaysia and four to Laos.

The company has filed six Drug Master Files (DMF) in Ukraine and five in Russia as part of the strategy to expand the export basket. The Ukranian registration is likely to come next month and Bafna has started an office in that country. The company will soon extend its operations to the African continent with base in Kenya. Bafna is also planning to launch generic products to strengthen its presence in the local market, said Mahaveer Bafna.