The Hindu Business Line : USV launches sweetener

Mumbai March 29 The Rs 670-crore USV Ltd expects to have its research centre in Mumbai operational by June. The centre will reinforce USV's efforts in developing medicines in the innovative, generic and biotech segments.

The research centre will have 200 scientists, and vaccines will be one of the major areas that the company would look at, Mr Prashant Tewari, USV's Managing Director, told media-persons at the launch of its sweetener Cutkal. USV invests 5 per cent of its sales in research.

The sweetener marks USV's decision, taken three years ago, to address the larger dimensions of diabetes. USV is a significant player in the diabetes segment and is a producer of Metformin, an ingredient that goes into anti-diabetic drugs.

Elaborating on the other products that the company was working on, he said, that USV's typhoid vaccine, supported by the Department of Biotechnology, was expected to go into pre-clinical trials by the first quarter of next year. Human trials would commence on two of its recombinant DNA proteins, Neseritide and human growth hormone, in June, he said.

The company has invested in its manufacturing facilities — including Rs 80 crore in its bulk drug plant in Chiplun, Rs 45 crore in its finished drugs plant at Daman, Rs 45 crore in its injectibles plant at Daman and a biologics facility at Nerul at about Rs 15 crore. The company also has a plant at Baddi, at a project cost of Rs 25 crore.

USV's domestic sales contribute about 66 per cent of the company's revenues, while the rest comes from overseas. Cutkal launch

USV's sweetener Cutkal enters an estimated Rs 60-crore market, growing at 20 per cent. Cutkal is priced at Rs 58 for a dispenser containing 60 pellets, a company official said. The product combines aspartame, an ingredient seen in several sweeteners and acesulfame-K, used in diet colas, she added. The artificial sweeteners segment already has several players including Equal from Merisant, Sugar Free from Zydus Cadila, Zero from Alembic, Sweetex from the erstwhile Boots Piramal and Majesta from Alkem.

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Hindi version of Office 2007