Besides, the company has also earmarked an investment of close to Rs 80 crore for expanding capacities and producing new drugs over the next three years from its four divisions -- bulk drugs, formulations, consumer care and herbal division, Morepen Laboratories, director, Sushil Suri said here.

"We are presently working on expanding capacities and identifying new drugs to be produced from our units over the next three years. We are still maturing. Over the next three years, we intend to hive all the four divisions into separate profit centres under the umbrella Morepen brand. Though the divisions would emerge as separate entities pursuant to the exercise, it will still remain a part of the umbrella brand of Morepen."

The company expects bulk drugs to account for 50 per cent of its turnover, formulations for 30 per cent, consumer care for 15 percent and the herbal division for the remaining 5 per cent.

The company, he said, has also targetted a ten-fold jump in turnover in the next three years, having bagged the license from the US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) to manufacture an anti-allergenic drug in India. It expects the turnover to touch Rs 2,500 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 256 crore in 1998-99. Profits, which stood at Rs 34 crore in the previous fiscal, is expected to surge to over Rs 1,000 crore.

This is on the strength of the company's growth strategy to identify drugs that would go out of the patent regime over the next three years. It has already identified Loratadine and Cisapride as the first two drugs to be produced by the cmpany. Four more drugs are in the pipeline, which include Fluastatin (cholesterol reducer), Losartan (anti-hypertensive), Zafirlukast and Monteluast (both anti-asthamatic).

Besides, Morepen is also increasing its presence in the over-the-counter (OTC) category through its consumer care and herbal divisions.

Theproducts from the consumer care division are currently being test marketed and will be launched in the domestic and export markets in a phased manner over a period of 18 months.

The products are herbal formulations of garlic, mint, turmeric, ginger and valeriana. The range of products include Garliton (garlic anti-cholesterol tablets), turmeric capsules for internal healing and arthritis, Zinger (ginger tablets for motion sickness, nausea and gastric problems), Mintina (mint tablets for curing stomach pains, spasms), Zimvit-L (multivitamin tablets for lactating mothers) and Zimvit-P (multivitamin tablets for pregnant women).

The first products in the series -- Dab, an ayurvedic antacid granule in sachet packaging -- was introduced in the market recently. Morepen is now also planning to introduce the same in bottles.

Meanwhile, the company is also planning to manufacture medical equipments in-house. As part of this strategy, Morepen had recently joined hands with Pari GmbH of Germany to launch inhalationtherapy equipment under a marketing pact. The product is presently being imported from Germany.

"But we will gradually shift to producing them here."

Under the existing pact, Morepen will also export different models of the Pari inhalation therapy equipment to Nepal. At present, four models -- Pari Walkboy priced at Rs 15,000, Pari Boy (Rs 7,000), Pari Master (Rs 14,500) and Pari Proneb (Rs 4,500) -- are being offered to patients with respiratory diseases like bronchitis and asthma.