Indian Drug Maker to Target EU Market through Bulgarian Subsidiary

Alok Saxena, Elder Pharmaceuticals Limited Director (International Business). Photo by biomeda.net

Drug maker Elder Pharmaceuticals based in Mumbai, India, will beef up the production of its Bulgarian subsidiary Elder Biomeda AD in order to target the European market.

Elder Pharmaceuticals, ranked 28th among India's 300 largest companies, plans to start manufacturing up to six of its products at the facility of its Bulgarian arm ''Elder Biomeda AD'' to market them in Europe, PTI reported citing Alok Saxena, Elder Pharmaceuticals Limited Director (International Business).

"We are looking at building synergy between our Indian and Bulgarian operations to launch products from here in the European market," Saxena is quoted as saying.

Elder Pharmaceuticals has identified at least six products, which includes women healthcare and nutritional supplements to be produced at Biomeda AD's plant, which is among the largest pharmaceutical production facilities in Bulgaria.

The company also plans to launch its calcium supplement ''Shelcal'' on the Bulgarian market.

"It (Shelcal) has already being launched in some of the other markets, especially Southeast Asia. Our target is to use the Bulgarian facility to launch this product into the European market," Saxena said.

On plans of bringing products from the portfolio of recently acquired UK-based vitamins maker NeutraHealth to India, Saxena said it would happen later this fiscal year.

"We will launch NeutraHealth products later this year as at the moment we are working on getting prerequisite licences," Saxena said.

NeutraHealth focuses on the highly fragmented vitamins, minerals and supplements sector within the UK and Europe. It has three group companies - Biocare, Brunel Healthcare and Totally Nourish.

Last year Elder Pharmaceuticals increased its stake in its Bulgarian subsidiary Elder Biomedia AD from 61% to 92.2% through its wholly owned Dubai subsidiary Elder International FZCO.

Elder Biomedia makes ointments, capsules and tablets and employs about 300 people. Indian company Elder Pharmaceuticals first purchased a share, 51%, of Bulgarian company Biomeda 2000 Ltd in 2007, subsequently increasing its stake. Biomeda itself was started as a Bulgarian-German company for the manufacturing of herbal medicinal products in December 1989.

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