JBL to embark on $21.34M expansion

By agencies   |   Wednesday, 05 April 2006, 19:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: Jupiter Bioscience Ltd (JBL), a specialized peptide manufacturer, has embarked upon an expansion program involving a capital expenditure of $21.34 million. Announcing this, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, Venkat R Kalavakolanu said, “We are planning to set up a manufacturing base in the U.S. for catering to the regulated markets and a facility at Hyderabad for meeting the needs of non-regulated markets.” JBL recently acquired a modern manufacturing facility from the pharmaceutical major Aurobindo Pharma located at Khazipally at a consideration of around $3.40 million. The company is spending close to $5.68 million for expanding the facility. JBL is perhaps the lone peptide company in Asia with technology to manufacture peptides from the basic stage and among the ten-peptide companies in the world, he said. JBL's subsidiary — Jupiter Bioscience (US) — is in the process of setting up a cGMP facility in Maryland for the manufacture of custom peptides, clinical peptides and peptide-based generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). To raise funds for these programmes, the company is planning to go in for a preferential offer shortly. Though the minimum offer price works out to $3.31 per share, the company is yet to determine the final offer price and the issue size. The stock had registered a year's high price of $4.45. Jupiter has also entered into an MoU for a joint cooperation agreement with Clariant Group having strong presence in Europe.