PLIVA, the 85 year old generics company based in East Europe, set up its new Research and Development facility PLIVA Research (India) Private Ltd, in Goa on Wednesday. This is the fourth R&D center within the Group.

The Goa center will be focusing on bioequivalence, bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies for the company's generics product pipeline. The Centre will also complement PLIVA's existing R&D capabilities established in the areas of chemistry, biotechnology and formulation development, operating in Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The new facility employs over 50 employees and houses laboratories and offices. Operations and implemented standards have been developed to meet the requirements for domestic and all export markets, including both the EU and US.

The total investment amounted to over Euros 3 million and allows for additional expansion in the future. The facility was formally opened by SC Zamir, the Governor of Goa, in the presence of the chief minister of Goa, Pratapsingh R Rane; the Croatian Ambassador to India, Dino Debeljuh; and PLIVA's executive director for Generics Research and Development, Zdravka Kneževic.

Željko Covic, PLIVA's CEO and president of the management board, commented, "This new biostudy center in Goa, India represents PLIVA's first greenfield investment in this country and fourth center of R&D excellence. We are excited about this opportunity as the new facility will enable PLIVA to further expand its development capacity of in-house generics products. We believe that India will play an important role in PLIVA's future R&D activities, with hopes to grow this center further".

PLIVA continues to collaborate with a number of Indian companies in both R&D and business development, including Dr Reddy's Labs in the area of oncology and Unichem in development and product supply.

PLIVA is a 85 year old global generics company based in Eastern Europe. The company develops, manufactures and markets both final dosage forms, generic pharmaceutical products and APIs, with products ranging from over-the-counter, commodity to value-added generics, biosimilars and cytostatics. It currently operates in over 30 markets worldwide.