Eisai Pharmaceuticals (India) Pvt. Ltd, which exports several products from India, is finding it convenient to use sea-route by making use of containers from here.
The company, which has headquarters in Tokyo, sends six out of eight drugs made in India to Japan including Unief made for urological relief and Aricep for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease through Visakha Container Terminal.
“We export 60 per cent of our production by containers and are planning to increase it to 80 in a year or two,” Eisai Pharmaceuticals (India) Pvt. Ltd Managing Director Sanjit Singh Lamba told The Hindu .
He said most of the APIs were finding the container terminal eco-friendly and cost effective to send to their foreign destinations. US-based pharma giant Hospira, which made the biggest investment at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City however depends on air-route for sending generic injectibles.
In his first interview after merger of Eisai Pharmatechnology & Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd and Eisai Pharmaceuticals (India) Pvt. Ltd, two subsidiaries of Tokyo-based multinational, Mr. Lamba said they had completed the integration for optimum utilisation of resources.
Eisai is involved in production of drugs for breast cancer, epilepsy, vertigo and neurological ailments. It had an exports turnover of Rs.80 crore during 2014-15. The exports are expected to grow at over 15 per cent, Mr. Lamba said.
The company recently completed 100 per cent expansion of their R&D facility at JNPC, Parawada with an investment of Rs.12 crore. The company has set up its state-of-the-art facilities by investing Rs.258 crore.
Stating that ‘Make in India’ campaign would be successful in pharma sector if slew of incentives were offered to investors, he regretted that the long-awaited demand for scrapping of Minimum Alternate Tax on units located at Special Economic Zone did not find mention in the Union Budget.
The issue has been taken up at the highest level. “We are hopeful that the problems faced by us will be addressed shortly,” he said.
