Eisai Co of Japan has completed construction of the Eisai Knowledge Centre, a new manufacturing and process research base in India, with an investment of approximately Rs 260 crore in the Special Economic Zone at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City located in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh. Eisai will advance preparations such as technical transfer, process validation, stability test, towards the full scale operations scheduled to start by the end of fiscal year 2010.The new facility will be Eisai’s first base to integrate Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulation manufacturing and API process research functions on one site.

Eisai Knowledge Centre was built with the aim of creating a future global hub capable of ensuring a stable supply of high quality pharmaceutical products and achieving innovation in API synthesis processes that will provide the platform for producing such products. In addition to the manufacturing of APIs and formulations of its major products such as the Alzheimer’s disease treatment Aricept, Eisai plans to conduct API process research and manufacture API and formulations of the company’s next generation global products. After the opening of the Eisai Knowledge Centre, the company’s API production will be handled by this facility together with the Kashima plant, Eisai’s another manufacturing plant in Japan.

With the operation of the Eisai Knowledge Centre, Eisai will further promote its hhc (human health care) philosophy and will continue to contribute to increasing the benefits of patients and their families around the globe by ensuring a stable supply of high quality pharmaceutical products that meet the various needs of different countries and markets around the world.