The Ahmedabad-based leading pharma company Dishman Pharmaceuticals Ltd will invest Rs 75 crore in the existing API facility at Bavla in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The new expansion at Bavla will be commissioning in the third quarter of 2007.

"We are expanding our Bavla unit capacity to 180 ton per annum from 70 plus ton. As for the financial matter, we have arranged a loan of around US $12.5 million and the rest will be raised through internal accrual. We are already in long term supply agreement with the Solvay Pharmaceutical and we will continue to supply to them. Our Bavla manufacturing facility has built and operated according to the latest system of cGMP. The plant also satisfies the US FDA requirements," a senior official in the company said.

The scale-up studies to develop commercially feasible processes are done in pilot plants by a team of experienced scientists and chemists.

In addition, a state of the art R&D centre is being created at the same unit (Bavla). The R&D centre will also have a cGMP pilot facility, which will comprise the latest type of analytical instruments in R&D and sophisticated equipment in the pilot plant. The purpose of this centre is to get recognition from reputed pharma companies all over the world.

The dedicated research and development centre is focusing on contract research, new product development, kilo quantity production in the pilot plants, development of 'potent' molecules and development of future generics and preparation of drug master files.

Recently, the company has entered into a marketing Joint Venture (JV) with Azzurro Corporation, Japan. The company will hold 85 per cent of stake and Azzurro will have 15 per cent in this JV. The new company will be called Dishman Japan Ltd (DJL) and its office will be located in Tokyo.

The company considers this as an extremely important step forward since Japan government has announced an open door policy for APIs and intermediates and many Japanese companies are looking for suitable partners for contract research and API contract manufacturing on long-term basis.

Talking about further future expansion, the company official said, "We will also establish our export oriented unit at our special economic zone in the financial year 2009."