Lupin Eyes Us For Rifampicin Exports

Lupin Chemicals, the Rs 68-crore Lupin group company, is targetting the US market for rifampicin exports. Its Tarapur plant in Maharashtra, which has a 120-tonnes per annum (tpa) rifampicin capacity, recently received the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, making the company eligible to export to the US. Lupin Labs, too, is making efforts to obtain the US regulators approval for its Mandideep plant that produces oral and injectable cephalosporins.

Lupin Chemicals executive director, Satish Velankar, said the company is in talks with four to five formulators in the US and Europe, who will source the bulk from Lupin Chemicals and get their formulations registered.

 

Volumes in the US market, currently at 15-20mt, fetch higher value on account of the market price being $400 per kg, said Velankar. Lupin Chemicals is targetting a 40 per cent export turnover by the year end, a company official said.

The company will also make efforts to shift part of its domestic sales to export markets as Hindustan Ciba-Geigy will stop buying rifampicin from Lupin by the year end. The latter set up a joint venture company with Chong Kun Dang of Korea.