Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a Mumbai based pharma company, is setting up a multi product facility at Paonta Shahib in Himachal Pradesh. The plant is likely to go on stream by December 2006. It has manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra and Uttraranchal and is also setting up additional facilities under its expansion programme. The total investment in expansion is expected to be around Rs 125 crore.
Alok Saxena, whole time director of Elder Pharmaceutical, said, "The Himachal Pradesh project is to set go on stream shortly. We have already started the commissioning of the various equipment. Once the plant is operational we will start filing DMFs. In this multi product facility, we are mainly working on such therapeutic area such as solid dosage, liquid oral, injectible liquid, dry powder, cream and ointment, he added.
Elder also has a formulation manufacturing facility at Sela Qui in Uttaranchal. The company's other formulation facility at Charba, Langha Road at Uttaranchal, is for injectables in liquid ampoule form as well as oral liquids and presentations in tablet dosages forms. It is expected to be commissioned by March 2007.
Its Pawne unit in Maharashtra is mainly producing amoxicillin. This product was well received in the domestic market. The company upgraded the plant with new technology using enzymatic process for improvement in the productivity and capacity. Currently, the plant has capacity of 10 tonnes per month.
The company had commissioned an US FDA compliant Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient plant in Patalganga at Maharashtra. Over the years, Elder has been manufacturing APIs like anti-bacterial, anti-hypertension, anti-diabetic and anti-epileptic therapeutic segments, substituting high cost imported raw materials. The plant also manufactured other APIs like Lamotrigine (anti-convulsant), Tizanidine Hydrochloride (muscle relaxant), Diosmin (capillary protectant) and Tolfenamic Acid (anti inflammatory).
Elder's in house R&D centre at Nerul in Navi Mumbai has approximately 40 scientists. The R&D team is also engaged in the creation of non infringe processes for the development of molecules targeted at the regulated markets.
"We are planning to introduce new molecules in the market. Currently we are in the process with many MNCs for tie-ups. Our expansion plan is based on our capacity enhancement and new dosage forms," Saxena stated.