Introduction:
Aptuit, Inc. (Greenwich, Connecticut) and Laurus Labs Limited (Hyderabad, India) have formed a joint venture, to bring their presence in the Indian pharmaceutical market through a Research and Development facility near Hyderabad, which has recently completed, and a drug-manufacturing centre which is under construction in Visakhapatnam and an informatics development and support group. The initial phase of the manufacturing plant is expected to complete by early 2008.
The manufacturing facility will be located at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Visakhapatnam. Over 2,100 acres, the Pharma City site will provide 34 acres of land for the creation of a Drug Substance manufacturing facility.
The facility includes a common effluent treatment plant, common hazardous waste management and marine outfall for discharge of treated effluents, logistics hub and chemical feedstock. The facility will have three general chemistry blocks and a containment facility for oncology products. The facility will be validated to US FDA standards. The initial phase will create stand-alone process R&D and scale-up capability, including a dedicated pilot plant, and flexible manufacturing blocks capable of producing kilo to multi-tonne quantities in over 120 vessels. It also includes dedicated production blocks for cytotoxic and corticosteroid compound production and leaves ample space for significant future expansion.
