Dishman expands Asian operations
Global pharmaceutical services provider Dishman Group, of Ahmedabad, India, is continuing to invest heavily in new manufacturing facilities in India and China. Planned capital investments stand at US$33m (Euro 25.3m), of which $20m (€15.3m) are earmarked for the current financial year and a futher $13m (€10m) for fiscal 2009, which begins in April.
Global pharmaceutical services provider Dishman Group, of Ahmedabad, India, is continuing to invest heavily in new manufacturing facilities in India and China. Planned capital investments stand at US$33m (Euro 25.3m), of which $20m (â"šÂ¬15.3m) are earmarked for the current financial year and a futher $13m (â"šÂ¬10m) for fiscal 2009, which begins in April.
Construction is well under way of a new production plant in Shanghai, China; the facility is expected to come on stream towards the end of the second quarter of 2009. The $20m (â"šÂ¬15.3m) investment is double the original budget as the focus of the plant has changed from raw materials to the manufacture of APIs and intermediates.
It will include a production plant, a warehouse, its own dedicated on-site utilities and administrative/quality control offices. It will mirror the group's facilities available in India and will ensure security of supply for customers.
A high-potency facility is also being built near Dishman's headquarters in the district of Ahmedabad.
The state-of-the-art 4,300m2 plant in Bavla caters to cytotoxic and non-cytotoxic highly active substances and is said to be one of the largest and most flexible custom-manufacturing high-potency facilities in the world. The plant is scheduled to be operational mid-2009 and will be managed and operated by Dishman subsidiary, Switzerland-based CARBOGEN AMCIS.
The Bavla facility will offer an extension of the production available in Switzerland and will enable the group to offer continuous service for scale-up. Two of the four cells are capable of up to 1600 litres, and a third is ready for customised products.
The first project to go into the new plant will be transferred from Switzerland, and contracts for products to be manufactured there in the Q4 of this year have already been signed.
"The new facilities in India and China will enable customers to solely collaborate with Dishman as a technical partner from early stage route development to market supply, without volume limitations. The addition of the plant in India offers customers a seamless approach to high-potency research and development, process optimisation and commercial manufacturing," said Jay Vyas, managing director of Dishman.
