Indian-owned pharma plant in Abu Dhabi opened

Monday, 20 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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ABU DHABI: Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Saturday inaugurated an Indian-owned $25 million pharmaceutical factory in Abu Dhabi soon after his arrival in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a three-day official visit. The president went straight to the pharmaceutical plant from the airport after visiting the Um-Al Nar desalination plant Saturday evening. The project, set up by the $1.5 billion NMC (New Medical Centre) Group in technical collaboration with global pharmaceutical majors Parke Davis-Warner Lambert USA (Pfizer) and Ranbaxy of India, will be looking beyond the regional market. "With its strategic location between the east and the west, and gaining a dominant position in the world trade, UAE is all set to be the perfect location for technology hub for scientific excellence," said B.R. Shetty, vice chairman and managing director of NMC Group. "The untapped healthcare industry in the region can be leveraged to a great extent with the introduction of novel biomolecules, which will set a new era in medicine. All this can be made possible using pharmaceutical and biotechnology as an effective tool," Shetty said. The pilot plant at the complex located at Abu Dhabi's industrial city of Mussafah started operation in May with the help of generator power. The cost of the project, initially estimated at $20 million, has gone up by $5 million, largely due to the appreciation of the Euro. According to Shetty, the plant marked the group's foray into pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and was a concrete step towards backward integration, thanks to its hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies and wide supply-chain network employing some 3,500 people. The plant, spread over a built-up area of about 17,000 sq. metres and consisting of two independent production blocks - one dedicated to manufacturing general products and the other for beta-lactum products - will use only 65 per cent capacity initially. It also has a separate R&D block. The production targets for the first year are 180 million tablets, 45 million units of antibiotics, 30 million capsules and nine million liquid oral doses for 45 different medicines. The second phase will see the production of over 300 varieties of drugs.
Source: IANS