Pharma majors are collaborating with foreign companies to develop newer drugs.
More than half of the small-scale pharmaceutical units operational in India have either closed down or indefinitely suspended business activities in the last two years, having being struck by un-favourable government policies and the inability to compete with big companies in the changing business environment.
Tata Chemicals has undertaken experiments with biofuel. If these efforts are successful, the company will take up large scale manufacturing of biofuel at its Nanded plant.
Suzlon Energy is relocating its management team to Amsterdam to span their global business.
According to sources, the company will invest $350-400 million in the proposed plant. This will be the first foray by an Indian company for manufacturing cement in West Asia which was so far viewed as an export market.
Multinational drug manufacturers such as Pfizer and DSM are increasingly getting into contract manufacturing alliances with emerging bulk drug makers in the country, bypassing established players such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's.
Oil India chief reveals plans of the upcoming IPO and future investment strategies.
Cipla tops pharma rankings with 5.42% market share, ahead of Ranbaxy and GSK.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country's leading oil and gas exploration and production company, is entering the alternative energy segment with a Rs 1,200 crore-plus (Rs 12 billion) investment to generate 200 mw of wind power for captive use, within two years.
With 40 million diabetic patients and an equal number of people estimated to be diabetic prone, India is emerging as a major market for blood glucose monitoring solutions.
In another setback to Big Pharma, US drug major Eli Lilly's blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug Cialis (generic name:Tadalafil) has failed to qualify for a product patent in India after the basic constituent of the medicine was found to be a known substance, developed and patented by Indian scientists 32 years ago.
Interestingly, the European Patent Office is yet to grant a patent for Maraviroc, citing insufficient data, sources said. These were the main reasons cited by the Indian Patent Office for rejecting the patent for the cancer drug Gleevec, which snowballed into a global patent battle between the Swiss drug major Novartis and the Indian government.
Suzlon Energy, one of the top five wind energy manufacturers in the world, plans to raise $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route to fund its expansion plans.
The group has earmarked over Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) to acquire coal mines in foreign countries.
Vodafone-Essar, the leading GSM operator is raising around $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through overseas borrowing. This is the first fund raising by the telecom major after British telecom major Vodafone acquired a majority stake.
Videocon Industries, the oil-to-consumer durables company, has joined the race for the acquisition of the London-based Burren Energy, which recently rejected several approaches including one worth $3.5 billion (Rs 14,000 crore) from the Italian major ENI.
The drug regulatory agencies of India and Canada are planning to collaborate on improving the quality of drugs traded between the two countries, besides helping the industry in both the countries to tap the opportunities in the field of generic medicines and drug development.
The Indian pharmaceutical companies are involved in patent litigations of a mere 40 drugs, out of the 135 known patent litigation drugs in the US. This is despite the claims by major Indian players such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's at having secured over 20 first to file status abbreviated new drug applications with the US Food and Drug Administration.
The company is demerging its new chemical entity research unit into a separate company to meet the demands of increased spend on research and development, and to insulate investors from the risks involved. According to the deal signed with Merck, NPIL will discover and develop new drugs for two selected targets provided by Merck in the area of cancer.
Generic drug sales in the US, that power the business of such leading Indian drug manufacturers as Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Zydus Cadila, will face competition soon, as big US wholesalers decide to outsource their requirements from upcoming Indian manufacturers.
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