Kemwell Pvt Ltd a leading formulations contract manufacturer has been awarded the EMEA certification for its new oral solids facility. This will now allow the company to supply to the European Union from its unit located in Bangalore. The company completed construction of its new oral solids facility in January 2008, dedicated for exports to the US, Europe and Japan.

The certification follows an extensive audit procedure completed by the Medical Products Agency, Sweden in June 2008, informed Subhash Bagaria, chairman and managing director, Kemwell.

The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has a capacity for two billion tablets and capsules, with provisions to increase capacity to five billion per annum. It is designed to manufacture uncoated, sugar-coated, film-coated tablets, effervescent tablets, and capsules with batch sizes ranging from 5 kg to 1000 kg, informed Anurag Bagaria, vice president, Business Development, Kemwell.

In August 2006, Kemwell had acquired the Pfizer manufacturing facility in Uppsala, Sweden. The company has retained all manufacturing and personnel on the site, which produces active pharmaceutical ingredients, tablets, capsules and suppositories.

Kemwell has secured contracts with a couple of European pharma majors and has begun tech transfer from the EU. It has long-standing relationships with innovator companies for the Indian market including AstraZeneca, Bayer, GSK, J&J, Novartis, and Pfizer. "We now want to extend our services to similar customers for their global needs," stated Anurag Bagaria. The new plant will increase current capacity by over 10 times thus catapulting the company into an area of high growth.

In the global pharmaceutical industry, North America, Western Europe and Japan make up over 80 per cent of the total market size. These countries are currently looking at reducing costs and increase productivity by outsourcing to low-cost countries like India and China. Our new oral solids facility will cater to all such markets and build on the 20 years of experience that Kemwell benefits from, added the Kemwell chairman.