| Kandarp Bakshi, managing director, maxEEma Biotech, told Business Standard, "We will be investing Rs 250 crore for our expansion over three years." |
| The company will be investing Rs 50 crore for scaling up its production capacity of organic pesticides and will be investing Rs 200 crore on augmenting its R&D centre and setting up a separate entity for ayurvedic CRO. |
| The company will be augmenting its R&D centre for ayurvedic formulations and will set up a CRO for the clinical trials for ayurvedic molecules. The ayurvedic CRO will be a separate entity and conduct clinical trials of its inhouse ayurvedic formulation as well it will be open to other ayurvedic companies for clinical trials. |
| The company claims the country does not have an exclusive ayurvedic CRO and it will be the first of its kind. However, large ayurvedic pharma companies have inhouse CRO. |
| The company had developed an ayurvedic formulation for disease of oral submucous fibrosis (lockjaw "" a pre-cancer stage) and snoring disorder. |
| Presently, the company is working on diabetes, cholesterol and arthritis which are under R&D stage. The company is not into manufacturing of ayurvedic medicine and would like to limit itself only to the R&D and F&D (Formulation and Development) stage. |
| According to Bakshi, "Selling the intellectual property rights of the developed ayurvedic formulation is a more profitable business than manufacturing the ayurvedic medicine." It has filed two patents for ayurvedic formulations for oral submucous fibrosis and snoring disorder. |
| It is also increasing its organic pesticide division's production capacity. Presently, its capacity is 5 lakh litres per annum for liquid and 5 lakh tonnes for granules. Post-expansion, the production capacity will be scaled up to 250 lakh litres annually for liquid and 250 lakh tonnes for granules. |
| The company is augmenting the production capacity of the organic pesticides as the company expects a huge export potential overseas. Bakshi, informed that out of the total pesticide market in India, organic pesticide hold only 1 per cent. |
| As per an estimate, last year 41,000 hectares in India were under organic farming, while this year it is expected that 1lakh hectare land will be under organic farming. India has 170 million hectares of cultivable land. |
| The company has a tie-up with dealers and companies for exports to Brazil, Kenya, Korea, UAE and Malaysia. The scaling up of the production is to meet the export demand and the manufacturing facility will be meet the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). The company has had the first six months of its production booked for exports worth Rs 10 crore. |
| The entire Rs 250 crore will be financed through a mix of equity and debt. "The fund will consist of 35 per cent equity and the rest of it will be debt," adds Bakshi. The debt fund will be either raised from banks, private equity firms or through public issue. |
| "In the next six months the company will decide on the mode of raising fund," adds Bakshi. |
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