One of the largest privately held pharmaceutical companies in India, Gujarat-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals (CPL), has decided to shut its Ahmedabad plant’s operations from Friday after its 26 employees tested Covid-19 positive.
“Recently, 26 of our employees from our Dholka manufacturing facility tested positive for Covid-19. Following this, we have closed our operations on our own. Now we are undertaking deep sanitization of the plant and its surroundings. We are cooperating with the local administration at all levels to ensure the safety and security of our facility and surroundings,” said the company in its official statement, adding that the management is taking this opportunity to reiterate that the safety, health and well-being of the company’s employees are of paramount importance.
The statement further said that Cadila Pharmaceuticals has been at the forefront of producing high-quality affordable medicine.
“Being an essential industry, we remain committed to restore normalcy at the plant in consultation with authorities at the earliest with commitment to adhere all precautions,” said the company.
The six-decade-old company headed by Rajiv Modi is one of the leading active pharmaceuticals ingredient (API) manufacturing companies in the country. It is considered one of the few companies in the country which is vertically integrated with a very strong positioning in both the API and the formulations markets.
Cadila Pharmaceuticals exports its products to more than 90 countries across the globe. The company manufactures 38 APIs and intermediates across various therapeutic categories — respiratory, diabetology, gastroenterology, pain management, orthopedics, etc. The company has more than 850 formulation products.
CPL has its own contract research operation at its Dholka facility, situated on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The unit manages contract research activities ranging from pre-clinical, BA-BE to Phase II to Phase IV trials.