Sanofi India, a Rs.1500 crore pharma MNC, has signed an agreement with India’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, Suzlon Energy, for a 2.1 MW (megawatt) offsite windmill installation, to generate renewable power for captive consumption at its Ankleshwar manufacturing site.

In 2012, Sanofi’s Goa manufacturing site demonstrated the utilization of biomass from agro waste to generate energy. In addition to creating employment for local villagers, the biomass project helped reduce the site’s steam cost as well as its dependence on fossil fuel.

Dr Shailesh Ayyangar, managing director-India and vice-president South Asia, said, “As a global healthcare leader, Sanofi believes that reducing our carbon footprint and using energy responsibly are part of our mission to help protect life on this planet. We strongly support the use of renewable energies, and hence initiated a study in 2012 to better understand the local renewable energy market in India to identify available opportunities. We are very pleased to partner with Suzlon to explore the use of wind energy, which is today India’s fastest growing renewable energy source.”

The manufacturing site at Ankleshwar - one of Sanofi’s three GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) compliant state-of-the-art manufacturing sites in India - produces solid dose formulations and Active Pharma Ingredients (API). Between its two facilities at Goa and Ankleshwar, Sanofi has the capacity to manufacture 8.5 billion tablets annually.

Tulsi Tanti, chairman, Suzlon Group, said, “We are pleased to partner with Sanofi, which is one of India’s leading healthcare companies. In times when the future of our planet is being discussed on various forums, it is extremely encouraging to see businesses taking proactive steps to offset their carbon emissions. We look forward to building a successful wind power project with Sanofi”.

In India, Sanofi operates through five entities - Sanofi India Ltd, Sanofi-Synthelabo (India) Ltd, Sanofi Pasteur India Pvt Ltd, Shantha Biotechnics Ltd and Genzyme India Pvt Ltd.