Ind-Swift to set up Rs 25 crore lab in Mohali

Chandigarh-based Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd is setting up a Rs 25 crore research and development (R&D) laboratory in Mohali in Punjab.

The company is also in the process of setting up a new bulk drug unit at Samba in Jammu for Rs 10 crore. Production in the bulk drug unit will be for the domestic market.

The R&D unit in Mohali will undertake contract and clinical research and will be catering for the regulated markets in the US and Europe. Ind-Swift executives said the company would also get in on the drug discovery business over the next two to three years.

The company recently got a research contract from two companies in Europe, worth $3.5"�5 million, to be executed over 18"�24 months.

Joint Managing Director V K Mehta said work in R&D and the bulk drug unit would be completed by the end of this financial year and production in the Samba unit would commence in June next year.

"This year, exports will cross Rs 100 crore. Our export income in 2003-04 was Rs 60 crore," he said. By 2007-08, an estimated 60 per cent of the company's topline would come from regulated markets, he added.

The company will focus on high-growth anti-diabetic, cardio-vascular, anti-depressant, and anti-asthmatic drugs, and is looking at strategic alliances with drug innovators to enlarge its product portfolio.

The company's API unit at Derabassi in Patiala was upgraded for Rs 15 crore. Mehta said the investments were mainly in upgrading manufacturing processes.

He said the anti-diarrhoeal molecule Nitazoxanide-A, developed by the company, had been a big success and was expected to fetch a Rs 10-crore turnover this financial year.

Ind-Swift Labs had reported an income of Rs 160.52 crore in 2003-04.