The company is in advanced stages of negotiations with a UPS manufacturer each in Europe and China and the deal may come through within a few months, said Mithun Chittilappalli, executive director, V-Guard. At present, the company manufactures only online UPS, targeted at domestic users of computers and electronic gadgets, which contribute only 5-6 per cent to its around Rs 300-crore (Rs 3-billion) turnover.
MSD Pharmaceuticals, the wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based multinational drug company Merck, has chartered an ambitious growth plan to emerge as one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in India. The Merck subsidiary has plans to step up its research and clinical trial programmes in India, mainly in association with hospitals and universities.
Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power (R-Power) has signed a supplementary power purchase agreement (PPA) with fourteen buyers from seven states for its upcoming 4,000-MW ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Sasan.
Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of the executive board, Merck, spoke to Business Standard about the company's plans and how it is weathering the global financial crisis.
Stringent regulatory norms and the financial impact of the global credit crisis on some research companies may hurt half a dozen molecules of Indian companies, such as Glenmark, Nicholas Piramal and Ranbaxy Laboratories, that are close to launch, experts and analysts said.
Citec Engineering India, which employs half of Citec's global workforce, is planning to increase its headcount in India from 255 to over 350 by the end of this year, said Martin Strand, CEO, Citec. "We hope to become a significant player in India in the engineering services for power, oil and gas industry, considering the development in the sector. We target to double our Indian business within two years," he said.
The company has already received an approval to spend Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) for commercialising two of its biggest gas discoveries in the D6 block located in the KG basin. "In a letter to oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the company has submitted one more development plan for Rs 10,000 crore as additional capex (capital expenditure) for the block.
ADAG has drawn up plans to invest Rs 650 billion in the steel, cement and shipping se three new areas over the next five years. The investment includes Rs 200 billion to set-up a 10 million cement plant and Rs 400 billion towards a steel plant in Jharkhand. The group believes that the three new lines of businesses fit more with RNRL than with other companies under the group, an ADAG source said.
Piramal Life Sciences may become the first company to successfully develop a tuberculosis drug whose leads isolated from the living organisms found in ice brought from the Antarctica region. "(Our) scientists have identified additional leads that will help develop drugs to treat tuberculosis and other infections," revealed Swati Piramal, director, Nicholas Piramal.
ABRPL is working on developing drugs for anaemia, cancer and arthritis, said Bruce Murdoch, chief business officer, Avesthagen. "We are targeting high-end products that are going off-patent and are not working on popular soon-to-be off-patent biotech molecules. We should be able to bring a couple of molecules into the commercialisation stage next year," he said.
The Rs 1,027-crore (Rs 10.27 billion) company has filed 13 abbreviated new drug applications and 22 drug master files with the US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory agencies in Europe for supply of formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Some of the ANDAs challenge innovator patents and the company's strategy will be to partner with established companies in the US and Europe for marketing formulations, said Pranav Amin, director, Alembic.
Terming the report as a 'rehash' of an earlier JAMA article by the same author in 2004, the ministry said it discloses 'a strong bias against Ayurvedic medicines.' The earlier JAMA report, also by Robert B Saper of Boston Medical Centre, had prompted drug regulatory agencies of the US and European countries to repeatedly warn against the use of Indian Ayurvedic products and ban some of them in 2004.
WHRL was founded in 1990 by Nobel laureate Sir John Vane to fund the research works at William Harvey Research Institute, one of the leading centres in the world for pharmacological research.
Had plans to invest $250 mn in the US polyester manufacturer's facility.
Sun Pharmaceutical may face legal battles in New York courts in its attempt to take over the Israeli drug major Taro Pharmaceuticals, unless its chairman Barrie Levitt and family give up in a few weeks. This is despite the green signal given by an Israel court to proceed with the tender offer.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories plans to brand its speciality drugs sold in the US. It will begin selling branded skin care products by year-end. The venture will be spearheaded by Promius Pharma, a wholly owned subsidiary of its US arm
Nutraceuticals, consisting of dietary supplements and functional foods with curative or nutritional benefits, are estimated to have a sales of $190 billion globally by 2010. India's food supplement and health food market is estimated currently at about $400 million. The country already has a clutch of established players focussing in this segment such as Avesthagen, Himalaya and Sami Labs.
The regulator has also cancelled the licences of three packagers providing services to Subhiksha for violating the packaging rules. The warehouses are based in Bhiwandi, which is on the outskirts of Mumbai.
The recent pullout by ICICI Venture and Citigroup Venture from a three-year-old drug discovery partnership with Dr Reddy's Laboratories points to angel investors' growing aversion to risk in pharma and biotech firms, say experts.
Pharmaceutical majors like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab, Wockhardt, Glenmark and Sun Pharma are now treading a careful patent litigation path in the US market to expand their generic business instead of the aggressive patent challenges they pursued until a few years ago.
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