Interview: ‘R&D Continues To Be The Key Driver For Sustained Growth'

More than three decades old, research-oriented API manufacturing pharmaceutical company Morepen Laboratories has established its presence not only in the generic but also in the OTC and FMCG segments. The company continuously strives to grow both in domestic as well as in the international markets. Kushal Suri, Head International Business Development, Morepen Laboratories Ltd talks in details about the company's plans with Usha Sharma

- Usha Sharma

Tell us the journey of Morepen Laboratories and its ongoing activities.

The company started as an Active Pharma Ingredients (API) player in 1984 and then moved up the value chain from simple semi – synthetic products to complex multi stage synthesis. Within 18 months of filing its Drug Master File (DMF) in September, 1997, we attained the title of being the second largest manufacturer of Loratadine in the world. Morepen became the youngest Indian company to win US FDA approval for its flagship product ‘Loratadine’, whose patent was to expire in 2002.

By year 1998, we had set up three state-of-the-art manufacturing plants at Parwanoo, Baddi & Masulkhana in Himachal Pradesh, for manufacture of API, OTC and formulation products namely, antibiotics, anti-prozoals, Proton pump inhibitors, anti-diarrhoeal, anti-inflammatory and antiallergic products etc with international standings.

The company has tied up with many multinational generic companies to market its products in the developed and regulated markets. We follow the concept of Green Chemistry by developing various chemo enzymatic methods for its new as well existing products including Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Ursodiol and other top selling drugs.

Recently, the company's quarter performance reported a significant growth. What key factors have driven the growth?

Recently, we received US FDA approval for our manufacturing facilities at Baddi and Masulkhana, and it allowed us to begin exports of our bulk drug Montelukast Sodium to the US and other regulated markets of the world in. It resulted in our export sales in Q1’FY 2019-20 for Montelukast Sodium to rise by 210 percent and that of Atorvastatin Calcium by 57 percentvis-a-vis the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. In domestic market, Atorvastatin and Rosuvastatin registered maximum growth of about 262 per cent each during the same period.