FDC Ltd - (FDC)

Promoted as a partnership firm in 1936 by the late Anand Chandravarkar to import pharmaceutical dosage forms, specialised infant foods and surgical goods Fairdeal Corporation (P) Ltd, as the company was known, was converted into a private limited company in 1940. It set up a formulation unit at Jogeshwari, Bombay in 1949.FDCs subsidiaries are FDC Holdings, Netherlands B V, FDC International Ltd,UK and FDC Inc,New Jersey ,USA . Fair Deal Corporation Pharmaceutical SA (Pty) Ltd is its Joint Venture Entity.The company manufactures Electral, oral rehydration salt (ORS), being a leader in this segment with market share has improved from 1.24% to 1.32% and its market rank has improved from 25th to 22nd. FDC manufactures bulk drugs, formulations and food products. The plant at Roha manufactures pharma dosage forms, food products and bulk drugs for the anti-rheumatic, anti-asthmatic, opthalmic and ENT segments. The company part financed its technical upgradation/modernisation/backward integration/expansion plans from the proceeds of its initial public issue in Jan.96. The company set up a modern manufacturing plant at Goa for manufacture of tablet dosage forms. The plant has commenced commercial production in Sep 2000. The plant is designed to meet UK/US standards on solid dosage form.In Feb. 2001, the company has signed a marketing tie-updeal with Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa. Through this alliance, FDC will be initially marketing 10-12 ophthalmic products manufactured at its plants in India and approved by the UK Medicines Control Agency in South Africa.FDC will also enter into a licensing arrangement with Aspen Pharmacare for solid dosage forms and oral rehydration salts, to be manufactured locally in South Africa at Aspens facilities with knowhow from FDC. Aspen Pharmacare is the largest listed pharmaceutical company in South Africa and a dominant player in generic medicine. The total market for ophthalmic products in South Africa is estimated at Rs 78.70 cr, and FDC hopes to achieve a 30% marketshare in five years.During 2000-01, the companys Roha plant, manufacturing basic raw materials, was inspected and approved by US FDA. The company is also setting up a modern manufacturing plant at a separate site in Goa. The plant will be a world class facilities with quality systems of International GMP Standards and it will also enable the company to enter into US market. The trial runs and commerical production is expected to be commenced in March 2004. To tap the Sub Sahara African countries FDC is planning to set up a marketing joint venture in South Africa and Russia.FDC is setting up a manufacturing facility at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, for the manufacturing of Cephalosporin drugs. This facility is expected to be operational in 2006. The company has received approvel from US FDA for its sterile manufacturing facility for ophthamlmic dosage forms at Waluj, Aurangabad and an analytical research and devrelopment laboratory at Jogeshwari, Mumbai. Also the company is setting up an additional facility at Waluj by adding one more Form-Fill-Seal(FFS) machine during the year 2004-05.During the year 2004-2005, FDC has received a certification for its plant at Waluj conforms to the Quality Management System Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO13485:2003 respectively. This will enable the company to enhance its exports to European countries.In the year 2004-05, the company has issued bonus equity shares in the ratio of 1:1.In 2006, The company has expanded its installed capacity of Basic Drugs, Capsules and Formulations (Cream, Powder, Ointments etc.) by 2350 kgs, 20,00,000 nos and 1342200 kgs respectively during the year. With this expansion the total capacity of Basic Drugs, Capsules and Formulations (Cream, Powder, Ointments, etc) has been increased to 119050 kgs, 19.20 nos in crores and 77,77,920 respectively.The company has set up a production facility at Baddi, Himachalpradesh, the production at this new site will commence from July 2006.