Lake Chemicals Private Limited, a bulk drug company in Karnataka, is setting up a new plant at Attibele in the outskirts of Bangalore.

The new plant, expected to be taken off by 2006 end, will come up at an investment of around Rs 15 crore on 2.5 acres of land with a production capacity of 20,000 kilograms of bulk drugs per annum. The facility will manufacture high value psychiatry products, meant for the regulated markets of US and Europe, followed by Australia and Japan.

The existing facility at the same location is a US FDA compliant plant with an annual production capacity of 15,000 kilograms. Now the company is gearing up to get ISO14001 and 9001 certification for its plants and facilities, Manoj C Palrecha, managing director, Lake Chemicals Pvt. Ltd told Pharmabiz.

Lake Chemicals has also earmarked Rs 75 lakh for upgrading its research and development centre. It will also increase manpower at this centre from the current 14 to 25 by the year-end. Annually, the company sets aside 4 per cent of its turnover for research activities. “With these we intend to aggressively corner a substantial share in the regulated markets and also focus on new molecules in our specialised segment of psychiatry, anxiolytic, epileptic and insomnia conditions,” he informed.

Lake Chemicals now has around 17 products and is in the process of filing 4 DMFs (drug master files) with the US and EDQM (European Directorate of Quality Management). It already has 4 DMFs filed in Canada. The company mainly focuses on anti depressant segment, which is growing at 30-35 per cent worldwide and is the second fastest growing sector after cardiology, informed Manoj Palrecha.  

The Rs 15-crore Lake Chemicals earns 70 per cent of its turnover from exports.