Alembic To Merge Pharma,Antibiotic Units

Alembic Ltd, the Vadodara-based pharmaceutical company, is undergoing an internal reorganisation to rev up its sales figures. The company has decided to merge Mega Care, the company's antibiotic division, with the pharmaceutical division Alembic to avoid overlapping of products in the operating therapeutic segments.

The two divisions' merger has been on for the last three months and will be completed by mid-July.

Confirming this, Rajesh Kikani, senior vice-president of Alembic said, "We are merging Alembic with Mega Care because there are certain products that overlaps in terms of therapeutic segments."

The therapeutic segments include cough syrup preparations such as its Glycodin brand, he said.

Kikani said the objective of the merger was to streamline the product portfolio of the two divisions. He declined to give the percentage of sales increase that they expect from the exercise.

Alembic is also looking at increasing its sales force after the merger of the two divisions, he said.

The Alembic pharmaceutical division contributes the largest amount of sales revenue to the firm. However, the growth rate for the unit has been sluggish for the past two years.

According to sources, the reason for the merger is to give a boost to the sales figures of the Alembic pharmaceutical division as Mega Care has been doing well comparatively.

The Mega Care division mainly produces macrolides, used to prepare a variety of antibiotics. The flagship brands of Mega Care include Roxid (antibiotic), Protinules and Folinal (a folic acid product).

The macrolides are also used to make a product called Tioc. Alembic is the only company in the country that makes Tioc, according to Kikani.