SMS pharma sets up facility in Vizag

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based SMS Pharmaceuticals sets up Rs 50cr dedicated facility in Vizag.

It is looking at the oncology segment as a major contributor to its revenue on the back of its newly-launched dedicated oncology manufacturing facility in Visakhapatnam. The Rs 50-crore facility has come up in the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharmacity at Parawada.
SMS Pharmaceuticals chairman and managing director Potluri Ramesh said it would take six months for various validations and the facility would start generating revenues from next year. The company is expecting about Rs 60 crore in three years from oncology products.

Rantidine, an anti- ulcer and anti-acidity active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), is currently the main source of revenue. In 2007-08, it accounted for about 40 per cent of the total Rs 257 crore revenues.

“Though rantidine would lead in volume term, its revenue contribution will come down in about two years as the focus will shift to new high value products,” Ramesh said, adding that six to seven products were in the pipeline. These products will be primarily marketed in the US and the UK.

Ras al-Khaimah-based Julphar, a formulations company, holds a 9 per cent stake in SMS and will do the contract manufacturing. The facility will also help SMS venture into finished dosage.

The global oncology market is growing around 20 per cent annually and the projected market in 2009 is about $55 billion (Rs 264,000 crore). “Oncology will be the hottest business option in the next two years,” he said.

SMS plans to take the oncology plant at Parawada online and has submitted the drug master files to the US FDA. The company is also building an API manufacturing facility on 100 acre at Kandivalasa in Vizianagaram. The first phase will be ready by 2009.

This apart, it is looking for acquisitions in Europe, US and India for increasing the product manufacturing capacities and to venture into new therapeutic segments in formulations, he said.