Leonid Chemicals P Ltd, a medium sized player in the pharmaceutical chemicals space has invested Rs 5.5 crore to establish a stand-alone HPLC Solvent manufacturing plant at Dobspet on the Bangalore Tumkur-Road. The company has also upgraded its plant to seek the REACH - Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals certification which will allow it to seek clearances in the European Union.

The company opened up a research centre and has commissioned a separate lab facility for organic synthesis at an investment of Rs 1 crore.

As part of its strategy to become the largest player in the country from the current dominant position in south India, Leonid will again make an investment of Rs 2.5 crore to augment its production capacity from the current 60,000 litres a month to three lakh litres a month by September 2009. The funds for the investments and expansions will be raised from banks.

The plant, which is ISO compliant, has the capability to manufacture from gram level to kilo-levels. In fact, some of chemicals which are highly purified solvents do not have a market in India currently and cater to only international customers. It is also engaged in customized orders for UK and US customers. Plans are also underway to expand this pipeline by 2011, Ramesh Mehta, director, Leonid Chemicals told Pharmabiz.

The company which is the largest player in south India has a presence in north and east India and is now keen to enter the western region. Globally, it has already been catering to customers in the US, UK and Germany and intends to focus on Australia, Brazil, parts of South America and countries in the European Union,

Leonid, which is primarily a laboratory catalogue company has a comprehensive list of 2,500 products which include reagents, solvents bio related products which are supplied to contract research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, educational centres and research institutes. There is a marketing team which taps every potential lab requirement. At least 70 percent of the revenues for the company which is expected to register Rs 12 crore earnings ending March 2009 are generated from the domestic markets and the remaining 30 is from the global arena.

The product range of the company comprises Analytical Reagents, Laboratory Reagents, HPLC Solvents and Buffers, Specially dried Solvents, Peptide synthesis and combichem, Deutero GmbH-Germany (deuterated solvents for NMR), Stains & Indicators and Technical Grade Reagents.

As part of its efforts to global market expansion in the European Union, Leonid is looking at REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) compliance that was enforced in June 1, 2007 by the European Commission. The compliance will help us prove the safety of substances for commercial use. It will help the company to faster registration and trade within the EU, stated Mehta. The competition for the company is from Merck, Rankem, SD Fine Chemicals and Fisher.

The value of the domestic lab chemical market in the branded space is estimated at Rs 450 crore and it is growing at the rate of 25 per cent. The unbranded segment is estimated at Rs 250 crore and is registering a growth rate of 50-60 per cent.