Hester Pharmaceuticals, one of the leading Indian poultry vaccine manufacturers, is planning to strengthen its presence in almost all traditional African countries by appointing new distributors. A number of products are under registration in these countries.

The Ahmedabad-based company is into production of poultry vaccines based on areas of virus propagation in specific pathogen-free embryos, tissue culture, batch fermentation of bacteria, lyophilisation and emulsion preparation.

Rajiv Gandhi, CEO and managing director of the company told Pharmabiz, "We have good presence in a few African countries like Kenya right now. We want to strengthen our presence in Eastern African countries. We are in the process of appointing our distributors in the countries and a number of products are under registration. We hope to commence our exporting to Eastern African countries soon."

For Middle East countries, a number of products are under registration. Under the agreement signed with Tokyo-based Sinsui Inc. earlier, Sinsui will market Hester's poultry vaccines in Middle East countries like Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia etc.

Meanwhile, the production at its new facility will be started by October this year. The company, as part of its expansion plan to increase the production capacity by 4 times, from a currently installed capacity of 1.2 billion doses, to an increased capacity of 4.8 billion doses, has set up new facility adjacent to its manufacturing plant in Kadi in Mehsana district. This new capacity will enable Hester to produce large animal vaccines besides increasing the capacity for the currently produced poultry vaccines.

The total cost of expansion is Rs 25-26 crore, which will be financed through preferential allotment of equity, rights issue, internal accruals and debt finance.

"Our expansion is mainly aimed at international markets. We are also eyeing US and CIS markets. Our new facility will be complied with WHO-cGMP norms. We are also keen to get 9CFR (code of federal regulation) approval from American agricultural department of which animal vaccines comes under," Rajiv Gandhi said.

The 15-crore Hester also plans to diversify into production of cattle and sheep vaccine once its expansion plans are executed. "At present, the company is involved in the production of poultry vaccines. We are on the process of finalising what kind of products to be launched large animal vaccine segment. We hope the manufacturing of cattle and sheep vaccines will be started by April 2007," he added.

Hester Pharmaceuticals has been manufacturing vaccines in India through technology collaboration with the US-based Maine Biological Laboratories (MBL). MBL, an equity partner in Hester Pharma with a stake of 10 per cent, has licensed the Indian company to manufacture and market the same brands of vaccines in India.

Having established the manufacturing facility in 1997, Hester has been licensed to produce 11 types of live poultry vaccines and 28 types of killed (Inactivated) poultry vaccines. Hester is among the only three companies that manufacture poultry vaccines in the country. Venkateshwara and Indovax are the other two manufacturers.