Zydus to invest Rs 100 crore in Vadodara unit, expand hospital business

Ahmedabad: Zydus Cadila will set up an injectible facility at Vadodara at an investment of Rs 100 crore by 2015, a senior company official said, adding that land has been acquired. The Ahmedabad-based company also plans to expand its hospital business across Gujarat in the next three years.

"We are coming up with a USFDA-approved injectible facility at Vadodara to cater to the high-value US market. Regulated markets like Brazil and Europe would be the next focus," chief operating officer Ganesh Nayak of the Rs 6,300-crore company said on the sidelines of Nirma University's marketing conclave, Ayatana-2013.

The new facility would be commenced by 2015 and it is meant only for therapeutic segments other than oncology. Zydus Cadila already has a joint venture with US-based Hospira for manufacturing anti-oncology injectibles at Matoda SEZ plant, near Ahmedabad, where the company has another joint venture with Bharat Serum and Vaccine.

Zydus Hospitals & Healthcare Research recently started its first hospital operations at Anand, better known as Amul's hometown. "We would add four hospitals in the next three years at Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Rajkot," says Mr Nayak. The second hospital would come up at Ahmedabad and have a helipad on the rooftop for air-ambulance services. However, Mr Nayak declined to disclose the quantum of investment for the hospitals' expansion.

Apart from the two new projects, Zydus is also looking at co-marketing or in-licensing of patented drugs for domestic markets. "A drug company has three ways to sustain its growth trajectory - own patent products, off patent (generic products) and the third way is through co-marketing or in-licensing."

Elaborating on co-marketing or in-licensing strategy, Mr Nayak says that the company has three co-marketing patented products-pantoprazole ( Nycomed Pharma, now acquired by Takeda Pharma), xarelto (Bayer Healthcare) and nexavar (Bayer Healthcare). Zydus has joint venture units with the patent holder companies and produces locally. "We are further seeking new co-marketing or in-licensing of patented products for our future growth," added Mr Nayak.

The company is also pining hopes on its indigenously developed dual-action diabetic drug-lipalyn-that can lower both blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Usually, a diabetic patient runs the risk of dyslipidemia (abnormal lipid/cholesterol accumulation). According to Mr Nayak, lipalyn drug addresses the problem of dyslipidemia in diabetic patients.