The US-based Perrigo Company, one of the largest over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical producers in the world, has acquired an 85 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Vedants Drugs and Fine Chemicals, with plans to make India a major global production base for the company.
The $2-billion Michigan-based Perrigo will close down its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing unit in Germany and will move part of its API production from Israel and Germany to India.
Sources said Vedants is an upcoming contract manufacturing firm started in 2004 and is promoted by the family of Piyush Maheshwari, a veteran pharma specialist and owner of Vedant Dyestuff and Intermediates.
They said Perrigo signed the deal in the first week of August for $12 million (above Rs 58 crore) and plans to invest many crores of rupees to get the facility ready for production by 2011.
Vedants is setting up a new European Union and US Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) complaint manufacturing facility at Ambernath, 30 kilometres from Mumbai.
Its strengths lie in the complex synthetic chemistry needed to optimise manufacturing cost for API and first grade intermediates for generics or research and development compounds in late-stage clinical trials.
“By the middle of 2011, we expect this new facility to be on-line and to begin production of certain API products manufactured today in Germany and Israel,” Perrigo’s Chief Executive and Chairman Joseph C Papa said, last week.
The acquired facility will manufacture certain specialty APIs as well as allow for the vertical integration of prescription and future candidate prescription-to-OTC switch products. Further, the transition to India will enable Perrigo leverage the capacity created in Israel for other specialty API products, he said.
India is regarded as one of the lowest cost production base for pharmaceutical products worldwide — about 40 per cent cheaper than production costs in Europe and the US.
“At this time, we are not announcing any additional details,” Daniel B Willard, spokesperson for Perrigo Company, said in an e-mail reply. Raviraj Pillai, managing director of Perrigo’s Indian subsidiary Perrigo India, declined to comment as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
At present, Perrigo lacks any production facilities in India and the Hyderabad-based subsidiary acts as a research and development support centre for its global operations, employing about 50 people. Under a division called Chemagis, Perrigo develops, manufactures and markets complex chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients used worldwide by the generic drug industry and for its in-house production requirements.
Perrigo has API manufacturing facilities in Israel, Germany and China. Founded in 1887, Perrigo employs 6,000 people and has production facilities in the US, Israel, United Kingdom and Mexico.
