Biotechnology major Biocon has decided to upgrade its Bangalore facility into a dedicated drug discovery centre giving fillip to its research and development activities.

The company has plans to invest Rs.100 crore on upgradation in the current financial year while it had finalised plans for investing close to Rs.200 crore in different sectors during the year.

Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said the company incurred capital expenditure of Rs.200 crore last fiscal and a similar expenditure was likely during the current year.

Speaking to reporters on the lines of the first ‘International Patient Safety Congress' that got under way here on Thursday, she said the proposed centre would have a capacity to accommodate about 600 scientists. It was contemplated to set up a dedicated centre as Biocon had whole bunch of laboratories scattered here and there and “we need to bring all of them under one umbrella.”

Upgradation of the Bangalore facility would enhance the focus on drug discovery to meet the requirements. The company had plans for investing Rs.50 crore on its active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility in Hyderabad in two years. Biocon had already invested Rs.50 crore on the facility. The company had commenced investment into the insulin programme with total investment expected to be of the order of $100 million spanning over 3-4 years.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) recently allowed Indian drug producers to increase the price of human insulin by 18.55 per cent. The revision in prices was aimed at providing a level-playing field to the indigenous manufacturers in relation to imports.

Currently, Wockhardt and Biocon are the only two Indian companies marketing insulin which has about Rs 250 crore market.


Source: 21. April. 2011, The Hindu