Lotus Labs, a subsidiary of Iceland-based Actavis Group, has invested Rs 17 crore for a major facility expansion which includes a new corporate office and a bio analytical and clinical unit in Bangalore. The company is now on a major acquisition drive in Europe to increase its presence in the phase II and phase III trails because it has successfully completed several such projects in this space for global customers.

The new facility located in Vasanthnagar in Bangalore will be commissioned by June end. It spans over an area of 6,000 sq. ft and can accommodate 14 LCMS from the current 9 systems.

The expansion and investments would now strengthen the over all capability of the company in terms of infrastructure and personnel. Now Lotus is keen to give a fillip to its international business in the area of phase II and phase III trails. For its acquisition plans to take shape, it has already identified 20 companies and talks are expected to be initiated once its new facility in Bangalore is up and running. The global acquisitions come in as part of its business strategy for growth and consolidation, Sudhir Pai, managing director, Lotus Labs told Pharmabiz.

The company is known for its expertise in bio-equivalence studies, and is now also undertaking stability evaluations. Today much of the phase II and phase III studies are done by multinational contract research organizations (CROs) in India as a part of their global trials.

As part of its expansion in South India, the company has increased its Chennai facility's bed strength to 80 and has set up a new unit at Salem which is a 50-bed centre within the premises of a cancer hospital. It has already commenced six clinical research studies here. In Bangalore, its total bed strength is 128 with 84 beds located at the St. Johns Medical College Hospital and the remaining 44 will be at its new unit. "We now intend to look other cities and plans are underway to set-base at Pune with other also locations under assessment, stated Pai.

Lotus Labs, which started operations in 2000-end, was acquired by Actavis, the 5th largest generic drugs company in the world by revenue, in 2005. Lotus, which operates as an Actavis subsidiary, currently has 33 customers, out of which 14 are in the international arena and the remaining in India.

The facility expansions by Lotus will also see an increase in manpower which is expected to go up from the current 250 to 350. The hiring will be in the areas of bio-analytical and stability studies where post graduates in pharmacy and analytical chemistry would be the preferred choice.

Today, Lotus is among the top three companies-Lamba and Vimta-in the area of bio-equivalence studies. With India having over 100 clinical research organizations, there is a clear indication that only those CROs who excel in service will survive despite the huge market opportunities. A prevailing trend in the CRO sector is that a lot of pharma companies are also setting up clinical research divisions and this will make it difficult for the small and unwieldy in operations to exist.