Venus to invest Rs 75 cr in Baddi unit

Chandigarh-based Venus Remedies Ltd is investing Rs 75 crore in the existing Baddi plant for setting up six dedicated injectable medicine manufacturing facilities and research and development centre and another Rs 5 crore for the upgrade of the Panchkula unit.

The entire exercise is likely to be completed by June next year. Once it is operational, the company claims it will be the largest injectable manufacturer in Asia.

At present, the company has manufacturing facilities in Baddi, Panchkula and Germany. The company has acquired the German certified GMP running unit in Germany in January, through Venus Pharma GmbH, Germany, a recently established wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

At present, it has two injectable (including Cephalosporins and anti-cancer injectables) manufacturing facilities at Baddi. Company Managing Director Pawan Chaudhary said, "The basic strength of Venus is its specialisation in injectable segment and once the Baddi project is completed with the eight dedicated injectable facilities, Venus would be the largest injection manufacturing company in entire Asia."

Also, the company is putting up research and development centre in Baddi, spread across 25,000 square feet area which will attract an investment of Rs 10 crores. Moreover, it will invest Rs 5 crore for upgrade of existing facilities at Panchkula.

About the new drugs, Chaudhary said, "We have 35 drugs in pipeline which can be launched within a span of 4 years. Moreover, of the 35 drugs, 5 are of patentable formulation."

In the last financial year, the turnover of the company was Rs 92 crore and this financial year the company is hoping to touch Rs 135 crore. He added, "With expanded capacity we are hoping to touch Rs 500 crore as a turnover by 2010."

Moreover, the company would soon launch third innovative product, Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) drug of latest generation, Cephalosporin with an Amino-glycoside.

The Drug Controller General of India has given approval to the company for the launch after completion of its clinical trials and all related studies. This premium product would be launched for the first time in the world.

This new FDC would be launched under strategic marketing tie-up with leading Indian pharma companies, in the Rs 4 billion domestic market and is expected to gain a substantial share in the market in the very first year of its launch.

The company's plans to take this product to the international market are also being pursued aggressively.

The commercial launch of this product would help millions of patients across India to recover fast with this shot remedy for Hospital acquired Pneumonia (HAP), and the treatment time would also be reduced to almost 50 per cent.

The company has already filed patent applications for worldwide protection of its patent rights.

Recently, the company has also launched another product, FEJET-OD. This formulation is targeted for use by preferably gynaecologists and senior surgeons and helps in building haemoglobin in pregnant and anemic patients.