Aurobindo Pharma eyes acquisitions in Europe

The drug major plans to double revenue to $1 billion in three years.

Hyderabad-based bulk drug major Aurobindo Pharma is looking at acquiring a $100 million European company to launch its operations in the continent.

"We are also interested in acquiring a domestic company, but plans in this regard are at a preliminary stage," said Aurobindo Chairman P V Ramprasad Reddy.

Unveiling Aurobindo's new logo and corporate identity here on Wednesday, Reddy said the 20-year-old company had targeted to double its revenue from the current $500 million to $1 billion in the next three years.

Apart from becoming a billion-dollar company in the near future, Aurobindo has set a target to emerge as Asia's leading company and figure among the top-15 global generic pharmaceutical firms by 2015.

With the company's upcoming projects and investments in research and development, Reddy is confident that Aurobindo will be able to achieve the target. Aurobindo is now among the top-five pharmaceutical companies in the country.

According to him, Aurobindo will have a separate R&D building by early-2008. The company is also setting up a $50-million SEZ near Hyderabad. Its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing plant, coming up at a cost of $40 million at Pharmacity near Visakhapatnam, is expected to go on stream during the third quarter of 2008. This apart, the company's $35 million Sandoz plant in the US will start production by September this year.

Aurobindo, which has a strong focus on product filings in the regulated markets, with an array of value-added generics in the research pipeline, proposes to go into basic and collaborative R&D through two separate subsidiaries. "The basic R&D proposal is at a preliminary stage," said Reddy.

Reddy ruled out any divestment of stake, even a minor shareholding, in the company at least for the next five years, during which period he will be at the helm of affairs. "The work we have done is not for selling the company," he said.