Speaking to The Financial Express, top company officials disclosed that the company had commenced negotiations with these MNCs who have evinced interest in sourcing their requirements from Cadila's spanking new tech-savvy facility at Dholka near Ahmedabad. They, however, expressed inability to disclose the names of the MNCs at this "delicate stage of negotiations."

"The MNCs are seriously considering the option of using the Cadila manufacturing facility as a base for production of their drugs in view of the fact that not only is the Dholka unit conforming to international specifications of quality manufacturing but also has more than enough capacity to handle bulk orders," revealed a top company executive.

International majors are also eyeing the Dholka facility in view of the fact that it would be far cheaper to get their drugs manufactured in India.

"Not only is the labour here much cheaper compared to most other countries but the capital investment required for setting up a similar facility in a country like the US would work out to be at least 15 times more," company sources said. After surveying the ultra-modern state-of-the-art Rs 100-crore Dholka facility, the MNCs are believed to have expressed complete satisfaction with the set-up which is in total compliance not only in terms of cleanliness which is in accordance with the EU-GMP guidelines of 1997 but also with the Federal Standards 209E of the US FDA.

Company sources revealed that Cadila was also interested in contract manufacture of drugs since it would enable it to utilise the immense capacity of its new manufacturing base which has an annual production capacity on a per eight-hour shift basis of 2,000 million tablets, 280 million capsules, 15 million bottles of liquid, 43.5 million sterile vials and 30 million ampoules per eight-hour shift. In addition, isolated production facilities have been created for B-lactum and cephalosporin dosage forms which have an annual production capacity per shift of 24 million dry sterile vials, 18 million dry syrup bottles, 360 million capsules and 300 million tablets.

The company is currently operating only one shift daily and part of the second shift to meet with its production requirements.

"In view of this, we can easily cope with large bulk manufacturing orders," a company executive confided.

Cadila recently bagged a Rs 5-crore manufacturing order from the Japanese Nichiiko Pharma Company.

The company is also negotiating with pharma companies in Sri Lanka and Oman both for execution of manufacturing orders as well as providing them with assistance for upgradation of their in-house technologies.