Promed's Indian injectables plant opens

Indian contract manufacturer Promed has finally opened its newly-built parenteral manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradeshon, India.

Designed to meet international standards, the site, which was originally expected to open in the third quarter of last year, is now undertaking contract manufacturing, formulation and analytical development of small-volume parenterals (containers between 0.5ml and 20ml) using blow-fill-seal technology, primarily on behalf of drug manufacturers in the Russian market.

The plant can also make ophthalmic products, respiratory solutions, wound care and ear and nasal solutions, and the company eventually plans to add lyophilised and liquid oncology, as well as biotech products to its production line, as well as expand its customer base into the US and Europe.

In doing so, Promed also intends to greatly expand the annual capacity of the facility from 90m containers to 600m containers within the next two years.

It said it will facilitate the expansion by installing up to four more high-speed production lines to add to the two that are currently in operation.

Furthermore, the new plant has allowed the firm to employ 200 people and it will "recruit 100 more in a few months time," said Promed president Deepak Bahri.

Indeed, Promed, one of India's top pharma companies, has grown 10-fold in the last six years and aims to grow more than 10-fold again in the next five years to reach a turnover of $100m (€84m) by the year 2010.

The firm also opened a new research facility, the Promed Research Centre (PRC), in nearby Gurgaon in February last year, and with a team of 60 scientists who are engaged in developing new formulations, the R&D site will also support Promed's new manufacturing plant.