Dutch drug co to invest in India

DSM Anti-Infectives announces it will invest $500 million in India and try capture the country's antibiotics market.

DSM Anti-Infectives, a $20 billion pharma firm based in the Netherlands, Wednesday said it would invest $500 million in India and hoped to capture a 10 percent share of the country's antibiotics market.

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"We are continuously exploring opportunities to invest in India. Currently, our sales in India is $100 million per annum," said company president Gerard Reuver, launching a new penicillin-based antibiotic, Purimox, in the country.

"We plan to invest half a billion dollars in various other innovations," he said here at the opening of a new manufacturing plant to produce Purimox that is used to manufacture a variety of drugs.

The facility was inaugurated by the Netherlands Ambassador to India Eric F CH Niehe and Punjab's Minister for Technical Education R C Dogra.

N V Ramanna, vice president of the Dutch company, said the present size of the plant was 2,000 tonnes and would be expanded soon by another 3,000 tonnes. "We plan to achieve a market share of 10 percent in the antibiotic market this fiscal."

A company official said Purimox produces amoxicillin using an enzymatic route and does not use solvents, which leads to a product of higher purity.