Hyderabad, the bulk dug capital of the country, is rapidly emerging as the favourable destination for the formulations outsourcing centre to the domestic as well as overseas companies.

According industry sources, outsourcing from the state, especially from the city has witnessed a major growth in the past few years and companies such as Aptuit Laurus, Sai Advantium, Laxai Avanti Life Sciences and several others are all set to exploit the opportunity by opening new facilities and upgrading the current ones. Companies such as Natco and Aurobindo have already proved their strength in the contract manufacturing segment. As per informed sources, Andhra Pradesh, including Hyderabad houses around 400 hundred contract manufacturers of various sizes.

The top companies, which are outsourcing from the companies based in Hyderabad, are multinationals such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and GSK and domestic players such as Cipla, Ranbaxy, Wockhardt and several others. It is also learnt that several mid size companies located in the Europe and US are also outsourcing from the city, as it is not viable for them to manufacture in these countries. The key formulations outsourced from the state as well city are related to therapeutic areas such as antibiotics, anti-histamines, anti-ulcerants, retrovirals, cardio-vascular and oncology.

Commenting on the development, R P Meena IPS, director general, Drugs and Copyright, Drugs Control Administration, said, "Hyderabad occupies number one position in the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and pharmaceutical formulation industry in the country and gives an advantage to the city-based companies. Several multinationals companies are now outsourcing from the city-based companies."

He further added that factors such as availability of good infrastructure facilities, highly qualified man power, availability of raw materials and the government support has been playing a major role in this trend.

Aptuit Laurus is a major player who is planning to set up a formulation facility in the city. However, company sources, said that it is yet to decide about the size of investment and location. The proposed facility would be a large one.

Sai Advantium Pharma Ltd, another leading city-based player, is set to commission its new research and development (R&D) facility in Hyderabad in another 10 months in order to exploit the opportunity. Its new manufacturing facility, coming up Vizag, will also be operational by the first quarter of next financial year.