Dishman Pharma to focus on US market

The Ahmedabad-based Rs 115 crore Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals (DPCL) has decided to focus more on the US market with exports of its bulk drug and active pharmaceuticals ingredients (API) product range.

The company is planning to enter the capital market with a public issue of Rs 60 crore during last week of this month. DPCL, which is setting up new bulk drug and API manufacturing facilities at Bavla, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, will also file application with the USFDA for approval of the new plant after the plant is commissioned.

Dishman's business is organised under quaternary ammonium compounds (QUATs), API and bulk drug, apart from contract manufacturing and contract research.

In each of these segments, the company undertakes both regular and customised production for various pharma products manufacturers including multinational companies (MNCs).

"As we are an export-driven company and over 75 per cent of our total revenue during the last fiscal had come from exports to Europe, now we are looking for market beyond the European countries and US is found to be the right place for Dishman. In the US market, through our wholly owned subsidiary, we are at present engaged in four contract research projects for multinationals while two bulk drugs contracts are now in advanced stages of negotiation. We are also supplying intermediates to one company there," said J R Vyas, managing director of Dishman.

The company has been operating in the US market through its wholly owned subsidiary, Dishman USA Inc. It earned a revenue of Rs 15 lakh from sales of various products in the US against a sales revenue of Rs 100 crore from exports to European countries.

Dishman operates through its own subsidiary, Dishman Europe and Dishman Holland BV in Europe while it also has created a separate entity for handling its activities in the African countries under the banner of Dishman Africa (proprietary) Ltd.

"We have recently kicked off civil construction work for our proposed API and bulk drug manufacturing facilities at Bavla and the first product line of this plant is expected to be commissioned by April next year. The first product line with a capacity of manufacturing 250 metric tonne (MT) of Eprosartan will help us to increase supply of this bulk drug to our partner, Solvay Pharmaceuticals BV of the Netherlands as we are already working closely with this pharmaceutical major in the capacity of an independent contract manufacturing organisation (CMO), said Vyas, sharing his company's future plans.

The company is planning to set up a dedicated research & development (R&D) centre at Bavla alongwith an API plant, and a bulk drug plant. It has lined up Rs 58 crore for this purpose. The estimated cost for setting up the R&D centre will be Rs 9.5 crore.