Comments
Biocon will invest about Rs 450 crore in the next three-four years on insulin programmes. The company would also invest Rs 100 crore on a dedicated research and development facility in Bangalore that would house 600 scientists.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Managing Director of Biocon, said the company would spend Rs 200 crore more on the ongoing research activity, apart from the Rs 100 crore it announced for the dedicated facility.
She said the first insulin product out of Pfizer's business deal with Biocon would hit the Indian market in this financial year. The product would be available in India, followed by other emerging markets.
Dr Shaw, who was here to take part in a two-day international conference on Patient Safety and Healthcare IT organised by Apollo Hospitals, said the NPPA's (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) nod to increase the price of insulin by 18 per cent would proportionally increase revenues. This could be seen in the first quarter of 2011-12.
On the German clause to offer a rebate of 16 per cent, she said it would certainly impact profitability. “We are looking at a change in product mix. There are various ways to deal with it. You can't create a 16 per cent margin out of nothing,” she said.
Asked whether the company was looking at cost cutting as one option, she said it should work beyond cost cutting.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.