The Chennai-based Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Limited (SCDL), a leading bulk drug and contract-manufacturing firm, hopes to corner at least 40 per cent ibuprofen market share in US soon. Currently Shasun has a 15 per cent share in ibuprofen market in the US.

Talking on the sidelines of a meeting to announce Shasun's tie up with Eastman Chemical Company of US for collaboration in the field of performance chemicals, Dr.S.Devendra, managing director, Shasun, said the company was also in the process of tapping the potential of its other APIs like Ranitidine in the regulated markets of US and Europe. (For Ibuprofen, Shasun has a growth rate of about 10 to 15 per cent every year in the US market for the last two years.)

He said the company has initiated talks with a few generic companies in US for exporting finished dosage forms. Shasun has already invested about Rs 30 crore in a new formulation plant coming up at Pondicherry. With the commissioning of this plant, the company hopes to tap the potential for finished dosage forms in US and other regulated markets in the next two years, added Dr Devendra.

According to N Govindarajan, CEO of Shasun, the company has lined up a series of projects and tie-ups involving multiple products and businesses in near future. He said Shasun was in the process of validating its Multi Drug Resistant TB drug Cycloserine, and was likely to commercially launch it by September, next year. The innovator of the drug, Eli Lilley had transferred the technology to manufacture the drug an year ago, and the results were excellent so far.

Talking about the ongoing expansion, the sources said the technology management centre coming at Kelekottiyur was likely to be fully operational by end 2005.