Indoco Remedies Limited, a Mumbai based pharmaceutical company, has acquired the La NovaChem's API manufacturing facility, located at Patalganga, Maharashtra. The acquisition has been effected by acquiring the shares of La NovaChem (India) Pvt. Ltd., the company owning the said facility, thereby making La NovaChem a 100 per cent subsidiary of Indoco. The facility is built on US. FDA standards and Indoco will apply for an approval shortly.

The acquisition La NovaChem facility, a state-of-the-art unit, is a strategic step by the company to build its in-house API manufacturing capability both for the domestic as well as exports business. Recently, Indoco commissioned it's newly set-up R&D centre at Rabale near Thane, which primarily targets API synthesis and development, and is also equipped with a kilo-lab facility, a company release stated.

Indoco is increasingly looking to expand its business from other geographies, specially the regulated markets of US and Europe. Indoco's Goa plant for sterile ophthalmic preparations is US FDA approved. This will facilitate the production and export of the company's ophthalmic preparations to USA. Indoco has signed agreements with two generic companies in USA and will supply products from the Goa facility. The company is looking at filing a total of 7 ANDA's by December 2006. The market size of the products aggregates USD 1.1 billion.

Commenting on the acquisition, Suresh Kare, chairman and managing director of Indoco Remedies Ltd said, "The acquisition of La NovaChem's US FDA approvable API facility, and the recent commissioning of the API focused R&D facility, would fortify and substantially hasten Indoco's strategy of backward integration and targeting of regulated markets of US and Europe. It will also help Indoco build its strong presence in API markets, both in India and abroad".