Biocon will invest $10 mn in expansion

INDIA ECONOMIC SUMMIT 2006

Plans are on to quadruple existing drug development and clinical research facilities and enter the field of data management

Leading biotech firm Biocon Ltd has said it would invest $10 million (about Rs 45 crore) in the next 12 months to expand its facilities.

"We are quadrupling our existing drug development and clinical research facilities," Biocon Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. The company plans to not only expand its facilities but also to enter data management.

Shaw said the company expected to sell insulin in the US and European markets in the next two years. She said it would take about two years to get permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to export finished insulin to the US.

"We expect our manufacturing facility to be inspected by the USFDA shortly. After the inspection, the realistic timeline to sell insulin in the US will be around 24 months," Shaw said.

The company currently has 12 new products in the pipeline, including antibiotics, a diabetes drug, cancer vaccines, and a cardio-vascular drug.

It expects to launch an anti-arthritis drug in the next three or four years in the Indian market, which could prove to be a multi-billion dollar opportunity for the company.

The company had recently launched a new cancer drug and is optimistic about the revenues the drug will garner in the next 10 years.