Orchid focuses on formulations market
By Pradeep Rane | 27 Mar 2002
Mumbai: Orchid Healthcare, the formulation division of the Chennai-based pharma company Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, has embarked on a growth strategy that will position it as a niche player in the domestic formulations market.
In line with this strategy, Orchid is offering a new product basket of three high-end antibiotics: Cepirom (Cepirome Inj) Cebanex (Cefoperazone plus Sulbactam Inj) and Zopercin (Tazobactam plus Pipercillin Inj). These are broad-spectrum life-saving anti-infectives that can be used to cure a large number of infections.
"The plan is to introduce more high-end new-generation antibiotics in the short term. This will provide us the much-needed push to position us as an effective niche player," says Orchid managing director Raghvendra Rao.
"On the revenues front we have already broken even in terms of our formulation business during the last quarter of this fiscal, and we are hopeful of generating profits from the next financial year. With more high-end drugs in the launch pipeline we are closer to becoming a key player in the domestic formulations market," says Rao.
Orchid had earlier announced that in the second quarter ended 30 September 2001, it registered a marginally higher turnover of Rs 937.5 million, compared to Rs 925.1 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The net profit decreased from Rs 44.14 million in SQ-2000 to Rs 26.57 million in SQ-2001.
In order to achieve the paradigm shift towards regulated markets, new state-of-the-art United States Food and Drug Administration-compliant bulk active and formulations plants have already been set up. Drug Master Files for four key Cephalosporins have been submitted in the US and innovative non-infringing processes have been filed for patenting in the US and Europe.
A new research and development centre and an animal house-cum-toxicology centre are under construction for supporting new drug discovery. Selective investments have been made to enter the field of biotech products. In order to provide a further boost to the company's research capabilities, the board has approved a plan to establish an overseas joint venture (JV) for research in collaboration with Istituto Biochimico Pavese Pharma, Italy.
The JV will focus on the development of novel peptide drugs, biotechnology products, innovative antioxidants and novel drug delivery systems. The products and technologies to be developed by the new JV will have an attractive global commercialisation potential.
Over the next 18 months, Orchid will be channelising its energies and investments in a focused manner to upgrade its technical and market infrastructure to new levels of competency. It also seeks to maximise its turnover and profitability with the current operations. Orchid is confident of becoming a globally competitive composite pharma player by the end of this period, based on the infrastructure and technologies under development.
In line with this strategy, Orchid is offering a new product basket of three high-end antibiotics: Cepirom (Cepirome Inj) Cebanex (Cefoperazone plus Sulbactam Inj) and Zopercin (Tazobactam plus Pipercillin Inj). These are broad-spectrum life-saving anti-infectives that can be used to cure a large number of infections.
"The plan is to introduce more high-end new-generation antibiotics in the short term. This will provide us the much-needed push to position us as an effective niche player," says Orchid managing director Raghvendra Rao.
"On the revenues front we have already broken even in terms of our formulation business during the last quarter of this fiscal, and we are hopeful of generating profits from the next financial year. With more high-end drugs in the launch pipeline we are closer to becoming a key player in the domestic formulations market," says Rao.
Orchid had earlier announced that in the second quarter ended 30 September 2001, it registered a marginally higher turnover of Rs 937.5 million, compared to Rs 925.1 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The net profit decreased from Rs 44.14 million in SQ-2000 to Rs 26.57 million in SQ-2001.
In order to achieve the paradigm shift towards regulated markets, new state-of-the-art United States Food and Drug Administration-compliant bulk active and formulations plants have already been set up. Drug Master Files for four key Cephalosporins have been submitted in the US and innovative non-infringing processes have been filed for patenting in the US and Europe.
A new research and development centre and an animal house-cum-toxicology centre are under construction for supporting new drug discovery. Selective investments have been made to enter the field of biotech products. In order to provide a further boost to the company's research capabilities, the board has approved a plan to establish an overseas joint venture (JV) for research in collaboration with Istituto Biochimico Pavese Pharma, Italy.
The JV will focus on the development of novel peptide drugs, biotechnology products, innovative antioxidants and novel drug delivery systems. The products and technologies to be developed by the new JV will have an attractive global commercialisation potential.
Over the next 18 months, Orchid will be channelising its energies and investments in a focused manner to upgrade its technical and market infrastructure to new levels of competency. It also seeks to maximise its turnover and profitability with the current operations. Orchid is confident of becoming a globally competitive composite pharma player by the end of this period, based on the infrastructure and technologies under development.