Integrated pharma company Nectar Lifesciences Limited will invest Rs 600 crore to set up a drug facility in Punjab.
The new plant will mark the company’s diversification into different therapeutic spaces such as oncology, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and anti- HIV segment.
The company also plans to increase sales three-fold in the next five years to about Rs 4,000 crore.
“The new facility coming up in Punjab with an investment of Rs 600 crore will mark the company’s diversification into non-cephalosporin (therapeutic segment), aimed to cater to changing markets,” Nectar Lifesciences Limited CEO and Whole Time Director Dinesh Dua told PTI here.
The decision of foraying into therapeutic segment will allow the antibiotic drug maker to cater to the growing global markets in the field of oncology, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and anti-HIV, which is pegged at $150 billion at present, he said.
To be spread over 148 acres of land at Lalru in Punjab, the new facility, which will be company’s 12th, is expected to be ready by 2011. “It will manufacture Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulations for the identified segments of oncology, cardiovascular, anti—diabetics and anti— HIV. The total production capacity of this plan is expected to be 1,000 MT per annum,” he said.
To fund the proposed diversification business plan, the company would use a mixture of debt, internal accruals and private equity placements. “We will raise Rs 200 crore through private equity mode while Rs 100 crore from internal accruals and Rs 300 crore from debts,” he said.
In the current Cephalosporin segment, the company’s core area, Nectar Lifesciences has now made up its mind to focus on regulated markers like the US and Europe.
“We will be filling our New Drug Applications as well as Drug Master Files for entering the lucrative markets of the US and Europe. Japan is another market which will also like to capture,” he said.
At present, the company has a footprint in over 50 countries comprising semi—regulated markets like Latin America, Korea and Turkey.
The company is also holding negotiations with some of leading global pharma companies for supplying its antibiotic molecules to achieve higher growth trajectory.
