Dr Reddy's goes slow on Medak SEZ, may shift dosages biz to Vizag

Drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited is going slow on its 300-acre finished dosages special economic zone (SEZ) plan at Medak, near here. Instead, it is focussing on developing the SEZ for active pharmaceutical ingredients in Visakhapatnam.

“We are going slow on our Medak SEZ. We have not yet decided if the SEZ will move out to Visakhapatnam... but in future it may be,” DRL chief executive officer GV Prasad told Business Standard.

The company last May announced the two SEZs and said it would invest about Rs 750 crore ($150 million) in them. It has 270 acre land in Visakhapatnam and 300 acre in Medak.

On the investments made in Medak SEZ, Prasad said: “We have purchased the land. There is not much development there. Now we are building the compound wall. We will use this for some other purpose, say to build a biotech SEZ,” he said.

Prasad refuted reports that the company was going slow in Medak due to the Telangana agitations. “This is not related to the Telangana issue. It is our internal business decision. Also, there is a chemical unit in Visakhapatnam that makes things easy for us. Similar facilities cannot come up in and around Hyderabad due to restrictions,” he clarified.

In an unrelated development, managements of several pharma companies recently met K Chandrashekar Rao, president, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which is spearheading the movement for a separate Telangana state, after the party’s victory in the bypolls.

Rao is understood to have allayed their apprehension and assured them of protecting the business and trade interests. “We are not against industry. The trade and industry will be exempted (during agitations),” T Harish Rao, reelected from Siddipet constituency in the recent bypolls.

Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's was set up in 1984 as a bulk actives manufacturer, moved up the value chain rapidly, and expanded to key global markets.