Ranbaxy Laboratories to Expand Mohali Unit to Cater to U.S. Market

Ranbaxy Laboratories plans to expand its Mohali facility starting 2014, primarily to meet the increase in demand from the US+market&select=1 target=_blank style=text-decoration:none;cursor:hand;>US market. “We will look at adding another block at Mohali in 2014 as we have additional land there,” Ranbaxy’s CEO and Managing Director Arun Sawhney told Business Standard. The drug maker’s existing SEZ (special economic zone) facility in Mohali manufactures oral solid products for export to the US, the European Union and other geographies. The facility is relatively new and received approval from the US regulatory authorities in October last year. However, it assumed significance in Ranbaxy’s operations as its approval had come as a major relief for the company facing long-drawn trouble in its largest market. After Ranbaxy’s three key Indian facilities at Paonta Sahib and Batamandi (both in Himachal Pradesh) along with Dewas (in Madhya Pradesh) came under import alert of the US Food and Drug Administration ( US FDA) in 2008, the company had to shift production of many of its products to its facility in the US — Ohm Laboratories. “This obviously created capacity constraint for the company. Mohali plant approval again provided Ranbaxy a low-cost India-based manufacturing source to supply formulations to the US,” said an analyst. Earlier this year, Ranbaxy started shifting production of its generic version of the world’s bestselling drug Lipitor from the US to its manufacturing facility in Mohali.