Swiss specialty chemicals major Clariant will invest about CHF 10 million (about Rs 64 crore) in a healthcare packaging manufacturing plant at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. The plant will manufacture Clariant’s moisture control products to support the growing pharmaceutical packaging market in India.

“This new manufacturing facility is in alignment with our overall growth strategy in the country. The new facility will enable us to enhance our medical specialties business and offer end-to-end solutions to our existing as well as potential customers. Clariant in India is accelerating change and continues to fulfil our commitments to all our stakeholders, as the Indian market stays at the core of Clariant’s global focus,” commented Dr Deepak Parikh, region president - India, Clariant.

Clariant healthcare packaging, a member of masterbatches business unit, manufactures a full range of controlled atmosphere packaging solutions including pharmaceutical desiccants, equilibrium sorbents, adsorbent polymers, oxygen scavengers and pharmaceutical closures and containers. The new plant in Cuddalore will initially produce desiccant canisters and packets, which are inserted into pharmaceutical packaging to control moisture and protect the stability of the medicine during shelf life. The desiccant production facility will be compliant with all relevant current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) and US FDA standards.

Ketan Premani, head of Clariant healthcare packaging sales in India, said, “India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally making it a key market for Clariant’s desiccant products. We want to ensure that we serve our customers here as directly and efficiently as possible. When the plant is complete, they will now have the ability to procure Clariant’s global-standard products directly produced in India.”

The new healthcare packaging plant in Cuddalore - together with its plant in Changshu, China and the recent acquisition of healthcare packaging specialist VitaPac, located in Dongguan, China - positions Clariant to play a major role in the expanding healthcare sector across Asia.

Creating another base for desiccant canister and packet production also supports Clariant’s rigorous business-continuity goals. “More and more global pharmaceutical companies are instituting business-continuity plans, or BCP, to deal with possible market disruptions, both natural and man-made. This new plant will support our ability to provide the same products from multiple plants in Asia and around the world,” explained Matthias Brommer, vice president and head of Clariant healthcare packaging.

The new plant will primarily serve globally active generic and branded pharmaceutical companies operating in India, as well as the domestic Indian pharmaceutical market. According to Markets and Markets, a major global market-research firm, India’s pharmaceutical packaging market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2 percent from 2015 to 2020. India Ratings & Research, another research company with six offices across India, recently reported that Indian drug makers accounted for 40 percent of US generic drug imports. It forecasts a 20 percent CAGR for the overall pharmaceutical market through 2020.

Marco Cenisio, senior vice president and general manager of masterbatches business unit, Clariant, said, “The significant investment in Cuddalore of our new healthcare packaging plant further strengthens our commitment to capture the growth opportunities that exist in emerging markets and specifically in the highly attractive market in India. It also highlights the commitment of our business unit to devote a large portion of the capital budget to our Healthcare Packaging business to continue to fund its growth.”

 

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