Biocon to invest upto Rs 200 crore in R&D, manufacturing this FY

HYDERABAD: Biotechnology major Biocon will be investing up to Rs 200 crore in the current fiscal for enhancing its Research and Development (R&D) and manufacturing, said its Chairperson and Managing Director, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw here today.

"I would say roughly Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore in total we will be investing this year between manufacturing and R&D," Shaw told reporters on the sidelines of International Patient Safety Congress, which began here today.

The company is in the process of setting up a dedicated Research & Development (R&D) facility in Bangalore with an investment of Rs 100 crore.

"The proposed facility will have the capacity to accommodate about 600 scientists. We don't have an R&D centre here. Right now we just have whole bunch of labs here and there scattered. We need to bring them all under one umbrella," she explained.

Biocon will invest Rs 50 crore in the API manufacturing facility in Hyderabad over the next two years. It has invested Rs 50 crore in the facility so far, she said.

Replying to a question, she said the increase in human insulin prices will start showing positive results on the company's balance sheet from the first quarter of the current financial year.

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.