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Pre-filled syringes (PFS) maker Roselabs Bioscience Limited, a part of the Ahmedabad-based Roselabs Group, is in the process of raising Rs 100 crore, which it intends to utilise to file more ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications), develop advanced products like auto-injectors and enter into more therapeutic segments like oncology and newer markets.
“We are weighing various fund-raising options, including venture capital and private equity placement. We are expecting to close the deal by the third quarter of the current financial year,” said Zameer Agrawal, its managing director.
Roselabs had in November 2012 commercialised its PFS and formulations facility, set up with an investment of Rs 400 crore on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The company, which claims to be the world’s first fully-integrated PFS manufacturer to manufacture empty PFS, its components and then fill it with its own formulated parenteral drug, had delivered 1.3 million PFS units from its facility last month.
Stating that Roselabs was the seventh company globally to manufacture PFS, with the other six being Becton, Dickinson and Co (BD), Nipro, Stevanto, Schott, Weigao and Gerresheimer, Agrawal said the Indian PFS market was currently 0.1% of the over three-billion market globally.
“Indian pharmaceutical companies rely on imports (almost 95%). The products rolling out from our Ahmedabad plant will replace these besides giving a cost saving of 15-20% and bringing down the gestation period to 45-60 days, from the current six months,” he said, adding Roselabs had already been doing contract manufacturing for 12 firms including Cadila, BDR and Lincoln.
In talks with Hyd-based pharma companies
Roselabs Bioscience is negotiating with Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical companies like Dr Reddy’s, Bharat Biotech and Aurobindo to take up contract manufacturing for them. “With Hyderabad being the hub for pharmaceutical manufacturers, specifically vaccine makers, we are betting big on this market. We have already given samples to four such organisations here,” Agrawal said.
According to him, the company’s Ahmedabad facility recently received the WHO-GMP certification, and had initiated the process of obtaining regulatory approvals for its own products in more than 35 countries. It has also launched 21 molecules, including gynaecology and critical care (cardiac and anaesthetic among others), in the domestic market under its own brand.
“Our first ANDA is expected to be filed with the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) by December 2013. And, we should be having registrations in more than 100 countries by March 2014,” Agrawal said, adding the company was expected to generate revenues of Rs 500 crore by 2015.
