 "Natco plans to double the drug filings next year")
Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma Limited is planning to double the drug filings from the next financial year on the back of additional formulations capacity.
The company's new formulations manufacturing facility in Visakhapatnam is likely to be completed by 2017, according to Natco officials.
"We are ready to have a new green-field site in Vizag. Once the facility is ready, it gives us double the capacity to make these filings in a year. I think we only have one primary site, so it is putting a lot of load on the site. In addition to production issues, we need to handle new filings. We should be able to do more than 10 filings in the next financial year with the help of Vizag facility as compared to 3-4 filings in a year now," Natco vice chairman and CEO Rajiv Nannapaneni said in a recent analyst call.
The company aims to file six abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA) during current financial year, he said.
Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma is investing Rs 120 crore in the Visakhapatnam facility, which will be its first plant in Andhra Pradesh. Currently, Natco has five formulation locations and an R&D facility, majority of which are located in Telangana.
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Speaking of Natco's capital expenditure plans, Nannapaneni said, "We have spent about Rs 111 crore cap for the current year. We have budgeted for around Rs 260 crore for next year."
The company has recorded 92 per cent increase in the total income from operations at Rs 467 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as compared to Rs 243 crore during the same quarter last year. The net profit has grown 118 per cent at around Rs 66 crore during the period when compared to Rs 30 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.
The growth was driven primarily by increased sales of its export formulation business. Also during the quarter, the company has received an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from USFDA for its key formulation facility at Kothur and also for its chemical division in Chennai.
