The Hindu Business Line : Pfizer finds new facility in Maharashtra to manufacture Gelusil

But having snapped ties with the company that manufactured Gelusil for Pfizer in the past, the multinational company (MNC) has now identified another facility in Maharashtra for the same job.

The MNC drug major had registered growth for all products except Gelusil and Chlormycetin, Pfizer top-brass told analysts here on Monday.

And the lower growth of Gelusil was attributed to the voluntary recall of Gelusil liquid from the trade during the quarter under review.

According to Mr Kewal Handa, Pfizer India's Executive Director - Finance, the sales hit taken by the company on account of the Gelusil liquid recall was estimated to be about Rs 2.5 crore.

The facility identified by Pfizer in Maharashtra has got the Food and Drug Administration's licence to manufacture Gelusil in liquid and tablet form and production is expected to commence by the end of April.

The Maharashtra facility would also produce Listerine, a mouth-wash from Pfizer.

Gelusil is estimated to be a Rs 20-crore Gelusil brand and Pfizer had withdrawn all dosage forms of its liquid Gelusil in late February due to odour-related problems.

The company manufacturing the product for Pfizer was Andhra Pradesh-based Greesha Laboratories Pvt Ltd, though the MNC snapped ties with the latter following the Gelusil fiasco.

Greesha had commenced third party manufacturing for Pfizer in 2002. It was producing a couple of products that were earlier manufactured at Parke Davis' Hyderabad plant. But following Pfizer's acquisition of Parke Davis and the subsequent rationalisation of manufacturing facilities in the country, the Hyderabad plant was closed and manufacturing moved to Greesha.

Pfizer is also in the process of identifying suitable buyers for its Hyderabad (earlier with Parke Davis) and Chandigarh manufacturing facilities, as well.

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