Mankind Pharma to invest Rs70 cr in Himachal, Haryana

Kolkata, Jul 7 (UNI) Mankind Pharma has planned to set up two units in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana with an investment of Rs 70 crore.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, Managing Director of the company R C Juneja said, ''Spread over 12 acres of land, the new unit in Himachal Pradesh will start manufacturing drugs in August with an investment of Rs 30 crore.'' The company would create a Research and Development Unit, with an investment of Rs 35 crore, in Gurgaon, Haryana. This state-of the-art R&D facility would focus on research in drug formulations, new drug delivery sytems, bio-equivalence studies and new drug discovery.

Mr Juneja said,''The company aims to reach Rs 1000 crore turnover by 2009-10 and become one of the leading pharma companies nationally. To reach that target, we have chalked out a three-pronged strategy --expansion of manufacturing capabilities, increasing penetration in the domestic market and starting exports.'' The company would export drugs to South Asia, CIS countries and South Africa from next year. In 2006-07 the company would also enter into new segments like Asthma, Dermatology, Opthalmic and Anti-Malarial drugs.

The turnover of the company in 2005-06 was Rs 370 crores, Mr Juneja said adding the target for 2006-07 is Rs 550 crore.

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