MUMBAI, May 9: The Rs 370-crore Cadila Healthcare, part of the Zydus group, is setting up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Moraiya near Ahmedabad. The new facility, which would include a research and development centre, will entail an investment of about Rs 100 crore.

Senior company officials said that 70 per cent of the capital cost would be accounted for by debt, and appraisal was currently on by the ICICI.

The new facility would manufacture a range of formulations in tablet, ointment form and others in a phased manner and the project was expected to go on stream in 24 months. It will occupy 1,80,000 square metres of land and is now in the "site development" stage.

Cadila's managing director Pankaj R Patel said that the company's research thrust would be biotechnology, process synthesis in new products like loratadine and cost reduction of existing molecules.

The company plans to invest 7.5 per cent of turnover in R&D and tap new research leads in collaboration with other research and development institutions and international organisations. Cadila is already associated with the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, and focus areas include antibiotics and cardiovascular drugs.

Asked if the group would look at licensing deals with multinationals like Hoechst or Rhone Poulenc in India, Patel said that his company was open to such alliances.

"If Hoechst, Rhone Poulenc or for that matter any other company can offer niche products and would like the Zydus group to market them, we will certainly be keen," he said.

Cadila already has a strategic alliance with the $1.2-billion Centeon, a global plasma protein therapies joint venture company of Hoechst AG and Rhone Poulenc Rorer Inc. Patel said that sales of plasma protein therapies in India touched Rs 1.4 crore in January and February 1997, accounting for 47.5 per cent of the total market.

He said that the group also plans to make an entry into the highly competitive markets of North America, South America and Australia over the next three years.

The move forms part of the group's strategy to scale the Rs 1,000-crore turnover mark by the turn of the century. Currently, the company is present in over 31 countries spread across Eastern Europe, Africa, South East Asia, the CIS and Sri Lanka.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.