Cipla director, Amar Lulla, told The Financial Express that the alliance will cover key markets like the United Kingdom, France and Holland, among others, and would rake in around $ 5 million in terms of sales once the product registrations are in place.

Major product segments covered under the alliance in phase one include cardiovascular drugs, antivirals, anthelmintics and antibiotics. Under the alliance, the Rs 513-crore Cipla will manufacture these products at its facilities in India, while the overseas partner will handle the marketing.

Three of the company's five facilities have been approved by the British Medicines ControlAgency (MCA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), a pre-requisite to enter all developed markets.

Cipla's Vikhroli unit in suburban Mumbai, Patalganga unit near Mumbai and the Kurkumbh unit near Pune have been cleared by the MCA in specific areas. Besides, both the Patalganga and the Kurkumbh units and the company's facility in Bangalore have received the US FDA clearance for bulk drugs.

Galway-based Chanelle already has a manufacturing facility for veterinary products and Lulla said that Cipla may, at a later stage, explore the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility in Ireland. "We may eventually look at a manufacturing unit there and it could envisage an initial investment in the range of $3 million to $5 million," he said.

The latest alliance, Cipla's sixth in the recent past, is expected to add to Cipla's strong export growth. In 1996-97, exports grew by 56 per cent to touch Rs 62 crore, while in 1997-98 it rose to Rs 75 crore.

Major export markets include Latin America,Australia, China, Egypt, South Africa, Middle East and Israel.

Cipla existing joint ventures include marketing alliances with Canadian generics giant Novopharm, Genpharm of Australia, Heliopharma of Egypt and Medpro of South Africa, besides a manufacturing joint venture with local Chinese firm Aotuokang Pharmaceutical.

Know-how fees scale Rs 1 crore

Cipla continues to buck the general industry trend on outflows in terms of technical know-how fees and royalties. For the fiscal ended 1997-98, the Mumbai-based pharma giant is understood to have raked in approximately Rs one-crore from its European and the Middle East-based alliances in the form of know-how fees.

Though full details on these receipts were unavailable, the company is, in future, also expected to receive, among others, a five per cent royalty from its $1.5 million joint venture in China and similar payments from its Egyptian venture with Heliopharm.