Last Updated on January 21, 2024 by The Health Master
The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has granted manufacturing license to Prague-headquartered Zentiva Pvt Ltd which manufactures APIs and formulations with an investment of Rs. 250 crore following foreign direct investment (FDI) approval from the Centre.
The investment is a welcome development as the state has witnessed a surge in interest from both foreign and domestic players in commissioning plants of APIs, formulations and medical devices since July 2015 after the introduction of goods and services tax (GST). “Gujarat FDCA gave manufacturing approval within three days of the application despite the lockdown period. The company will make an investment of Rs. 250 crore initially at the Ankleshwar facility and plans to invest another Rs. 50 crore by the end of the year to further its expansion plans,” informed Gujarat Food and Drug Control (FDCA) Commissioner Dr HG Koshia.
To give the much required boost to the domestic pharmaceutical industry, Gujarat FDCA has also approved layout designs for 252 companies till date, Dr Koshia further informed.
The state today has 600 WHO-GMP manufacturing units and around 130 US FDA approved pharmaceutical units, as per official records.
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Some of the major companies to start operations based on the layout design approvals of plants are Exotic Pharma, Godhara, Aashka Formulation, Gandhinagar, Akshar Air Gases, Surat, Swan Medicot Morbid, Fishfa Biogenics, Rajkot, Chevron Pharma, Bharuch, Alidac Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad Rural, Madilyn Healthcare, Ahmedabad Rural, M J Healthcare, Mehsana, Labron Healthcare, Mehsana, Trio Lifescience, Ahmedabad city, Punishka Healthcare, Edkem Pharmaceuticals, Avantika Medex, Derek Healthcare, Dewcare Concept, Afeel Life Care, Rajkot and Moksh Pharmaceuticals, Vadodara.
Gujarat-based companies had proposed big ticket investments worth Rs. 8,223 crore through 273 MoUs as part of the 9th Vibrant Gujarat (VG) Summit-2019 held in January 2019.
Around 32 big ticket MoUs were signed at the 9th VG Summit with the proposed investment of Rs. 6,531 crore. There was an investment of Rs. 2,558 crore in VG Summit 2015 and an investment of Rs. 2,438.51 crore in VG Summit 2017.
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