Karnataka based Bal Pharma's Uttaranchal plant is in the final stage of completion and the commercial production from the plant is expected to start from next year. The company has already invested Rs. 25 crore for the plant, according to Shailesh Siroya, the managing director.

During the current financial year, the company has chalked out an investment of Rs. 20 crore to set up an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Hassan in Karnataka. The facility will be constructed as per the US FDA norms and will now target orders from the regulated regions.

The company is on look out for future expansion both in APIs and formulations. This will be either by way of acquiring a plant or expanding the present facilities. At Hassan, investments for land and plant have been made.

In the current year, the company has launched seven products and three are from its herbal arm Bal Vedics. These included an antibiotic 'Dynaclox LB' a combination of Amoxycillin + Dicloxacillin + Lactic Acid Bacilus. The second product was an anti allergy drug 'Ebay' that contains Ebastine is an anti histamine. The third product was an anti-diabetic' Diagrm' which is a combination of Gliclazide, Metformin and Rosiglitazone. The fourth product was for diabetic neuropathic pain 'Regalin' with contents of Pregabalin and Methylcobalamin.

The new products from Bal Vedics included Ayurfine Forte for arthritis, Menoleap Syrup a liquid preparation for women problems and Anarsha for piles.

The company has launched a dedicated Generics division 'Zennova' which is dealing with products only for the southern markets to begin with and will go for all India by April 2008. "We are adopting an aggressive approach to take this division to Rs. 100 crore in four years with a focus to reach to the rural and interior parts of India. With regard to the institutional business, the response has encouraging during this financial year with new states and markets getting added up regularly," the Bal Pharma chief said.