Tokyo-based Eisai Co Ltd, which has set up its manufacturing and process research base in Vizag, is exploring business opportunities in the country. The company is keen on collaborative research and is open to acquisitions to strengthen its R&D portfolio. Besides, it is also looking at bringing in four more products, which are to be manufactured at its new facility.
?We have two products–Aricept and Myonal–in the first phase. In future, four more products are likely to be transferred,? Deepak Naik, MD, Eisai Pharmaceuticals, said. The Eisai Knowledge Centre, the fourth such facility after one each in Japan, the US and Europe, has been set up on 50 acres at a cost of $50 million. It will manufacture APIs and formulations of Aricept, Myonal and next generation global products. The company hopes to advance preparations such as technical transfer, process validation and stability test, as it is set to launch full-scale operations by the end of the current fiscal.
The company is bullish on the opportunities in the domestic market, which has cost arbitrage and will soon become the global hub for manufacturing APIs and formulations. Eisai also plans to conduct API process research and manufacture API and formulations of the company?s next generation global products, according to Sanjit Singh Lamba, president, Eisai Pharmatechnology & Manufacturing Pvt Ltd.
Incidentally, the company’s flagship product, Aricept, used for treating Alzheimer’s diseases, and contributing close to $3.2 billion of the total revenue of $8.6 billion, is going off patent in 2010.
