Concord Biotech eyes 5-fold growth by '06

The Ahmedard-based Concord Biotech is targeting a growth of over 100 per cent by the end of the current fiscal year and aims at a five-fold growth by March 2006.

Starting with a turnover of Rs one crore in 200-01 when it was set up, the company notched up a turnover of Rs 4.16 in the past fiscal and expects to cross the Rs 10 crore mark by the end of the current fiscal year.

The first company in India and the second in the world to develop an anti-immuno suppressant tachrolimus, Concord Biotech aims at driving growth through this new drug.

"We will achieve a turnover of Rs 10 crore by the end of this fiscal year and aim to reach a turnover of Rs 50 crore by 2006," said Sudhir Vaid, managing director of Concord Biotech.

Vaid said the company, whose manufacturing facility is located on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, is already a leading firm in the manufacture of penicillinamidase enzyme through the recombinant DNA technology.

"We have also begun manufacturing lovastatin and are supplying it to leading generic players of the world," he said at a press conference in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Vaid said although biotechnology has been in existence in Gujarat for three decades now, until the nineties, India was importing biotechnology-based solutions for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), but now the trend has been reversed with companies like Concord providing technologies to various international biotechnology companies.

Vaid said in Gujarat, there seems to be an acute shortage of trained personnel in biotechnology.

"The government of Gujarat too needs to come out with a comprehensive biotechnology policy, that will provide a boost to biotechnology units here in the state," he said.

Vaid said there is a need for a better interaction between the biotechnology industry and educational institutions imparting knowledge in the field, so that better quality personnel can be created.

The product range of Concord Biotech includes lovastatin, compactin, pravastatin, simvastatin, tachrolimus and penicillin-G amidase. "With the setting up of our eco-friendly biotechnology plant, Concord Biotech has become a major player in the statins market.

"The world statins market is estimated to be of $20 billion," Vaid said.