Actavis expands presence

European generic drug major Actavis has expanded its presence in India by acquiring a manufacturing plant from Grandix Pharmaceuticals, Chennai, for an undisclosed amount.

The company also opened a new API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) development unit.

This is the second acquisition for Actavis in India, the first being Lotus Laboratories, a Bangalore-based contract research organisation.

Actavis acquisition is part of a recent trend among multinational generic companies to see India as a lowcost sourcing base for its generic drugs. Generic majors such as Teva of Israel and US companies such as Watson and Mylan are all already having active presence in the country.

According to Actavis statement, the acquisition of Grandix provides them with a low-cost manufacturing capability from which it can develop and manufacture products for the US and key markets in Europe.

"Actavis also intends to use the facility as a manufacturing site to develop and re-launch older products, as many of these products need lower cost base to be competitive in the international marketplace. Actavis intends to increase the manufacturing capacity of the plant to approximately 4 billion tablets over the next 18 months and strengthen the development and regulatory affairs units," the statement said.

Actavis also announced the opening of its new API development facility in India, with the aim of developing 10-15 products a year. "The unit has already started development of the first ten. The new site is 1000 sq m and over 50 specialists have already been hired" the statement said. The group's purchase of Lotus Laboratories, a contract research organisation (CRO) based in Bangalore, was in February 2005. Lotus has the capacity to complete over 160 bio-equivalence studies a year and the ability to reduce the group's R&D expenditure.