Chennai's Malladi Drugs to set up global hub in Malaysia

Maker of bulk drugs ephedrine and pseudoephedrine salts, the privately-owned Chennai-based Malladi Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd plans to make substantial investment over the next three years to set up its global hub in Malaysia.

As part of this expansion, the Indian firm will set up a local company in Malaysia to spearhead Malladi's moves in the "next few stages of the value chain" like formulation R&D, manufacturing, and formulation clinicals. The company also intends to extend its expertise in oncology and steroids and in betalactums.

Malladi Drugs has submitted a business plan to Malaysian Biotechnology Corp. According to the plan, the firm aims to expand into other areas of service offering as a contract research organisation in Malaysia including oncology and steroids, and beta-lactums.

Prashant Malladi, managing director, Malladi Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, says, "We have been studying this model for some time and are convinced that Malladi is positioned perfectly to deliver this."

BioTech's chief executive officer, Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, said the firm has yet to pick a site, but would be encouraged to locate at one of the economic corridors in the country, in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's call for those areas to be driven by biotechnology.

"The investment entails the development of the entire value chain within the contract manufacturing facility starting from the API formulation," he told reporters after the opening of BioMalaysia 2008 in Kuala Lumpur today.

The company has an API manufacturing facility in New Jersey, Novus Fine Chemicals, in 2005.
Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant that shrinks blood vessels in the nasal passages and is used to treat nasal and sinus congestion. Malladi has six manufacturing locations, including Novs Fine and says that it has the only facility in the US for manufacturing pseudoephedrine HCl.