Drug-maker Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd has developed a 40-product strong pipeline to tap the global opportunity of products going off patent.

The product portfolio includes difficult-to-synthesize active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) across 16 therapeutic segments, Mr N.R. Munjal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the over Rs 1,000-crore Ind-Swift Labs, told Business Line .

Patents are set to see their patents expire in the US over the next four years, opening up an opportunity of about $ 99 billion.

Ind-Swift is undertaking a Rs 180-crore capacity expansion over 18 months, he said, to support growth plans. The funds would be raised through internal generation and debt. “If the capital market favours, we could look at equity funding too,” he said, adding that the options could include a rights issue or a qualified institutional placement, depending on market conditions. The company's board has approved a resolution to raise Rs 500 crore.

Ind-Swift sells APIs in regulated markets, including Japan, the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada, through product-specific strategic alliances, company officials said. About 40 per cent of the company's revenues are exports.

Governments across the globe are increasingly becoming pro-generic, Mr Munjal said, given the high cost of providing healthcare. The company projects revenues of Rs 2,500 crore by 2015, on the back of sales in advanced markets, among other things.

Recently the company received regulatory approval from Australia for its APIs — Donepezil HCI, Clarithromycin, Letrozole, Pioglitazone HCI, Ropinirole, Acamprosate and Aripiprazole — to be manufactured at its facility at Derabassi, Punjab.

The Australian generics market will be worth $830 million this year — Australian pharmaceutical market is valued around $9 billion — and is expected to grow an average 7 per cent a year, presenting opportunities for manufacturers in segments such as diabetes, oncology, neurological and cardiovascular disease markets, the company said. Ind-Swift also has manufacturing facilities in Jammu. The company's Derabassi facility consists of 19 manufacturing blocks, of which 11 are for manufacturing drugs for the regulated markets, it added.

Ind-Swift Laboratories on Friday closed at Rs 83.15, down from Thursday's Rs 56.45, on the BSE.

jyothi@thehindu.co.in

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