The Hindu Business Line : Granules India eyes Europe for tablet exports

The Hyderabad-based company, which has built a new tablet facility to produce six billion tablets per annum, is expected to get approval from European regulatory authorities for its plant very soon.

“The officials from Europe have just visited our facility in Gagillapur and the approval is likely in next couple of weeks. This will enable us to start production and shipments for Europe,” Mr C. Krishna Prasad, Managing Director, Granules India Ltd told Business Line here.

Add to growth

The company, which is into making of Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (APIs) and Pharmaceutical Formulations Ingredients, is now confident that the foray into tablets would add to its overall growth.

“The tablet plant will take us places and will give a big jump in the market over next two-three years.

“Enough provisions have been made for upgrading the capacity of the plant to over 12 billion tablets with little effort. The next niche area will be capsules followed by liquids,” Mr Krishna Prasad said.

The company, which is in the niche area of granulation technology, is eying high volume business in Europe.

“Europe is a huge market. There are certain advantages like a dossier can be filed in one country and could be used in other countries as well. We want to file Mutual Recognition Procedure (MRP) for four to five products soon,” he said.

The company’s business model is based on focusing on a few products which drive high volumes, he added.

On the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) front, Granules is targeting aggressive growth. It had filed one ANDA so far.

It would close the company’s current fiscal year (ending June 2008) with three ANDAs and file at least five more next year.

Down the line, the firm would create a separate subsidiary for R&D in formulations.

“2008-09 would be a good year for us when we achieve the full capacity of the tablet plant,” he said, adding that the firm would clock Rs 240-250 crore revenue this year.

Funding

GIL has tied up funds for the expansion initiative raising about $25 million by bringing in strategic investors during 2007 through a combination of debt and equity route.

While Ridgeback Capital Investments (14.5 per cent) and ISP Investco (13 per cent) have both picked up stake for about $5 million each, IFC, the World Bank arm, has picked up 11.48 per cent for $6 million and is considering a long-term loan of another $9 million, Mr Krishna Prasad said.

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