Surya Pharmaceuticals closes 2 Indian API plants

While India is one of those countries where lots of companies are expanding drug manufacturing, it is not a guarantee that because you build, business will come.

Surya Pharmaceuticals, an Indian contract manufacturing company that had been planning expansions, has closed two API plants as cash flow gets tight.

The company, PBR reports, has stopped production at plants in Jammu and Panchkula, India, as its balance sheet debt has grown to nearly $300 million. It suggested the closure of the plant in Jammu is temporary.

Surya--which makes products including fine intermediates, finished drug formulations and phyto pharmaceuticals in addition to APIs--late last year announced expansion efforts. It said it was looking to raise about $90 million to build an API plant in Punjab to be marketed for neuropsychiatry drugs.

Both domestic and foreign-based companies are successfully making huge investments in India. Ranbaxy recently opened a new plant where it is making generic Lipitor and injectables maker Hospira ($HSP) is building a huge plant in Vizag. Others are expanding as well.

- get the PBR story