Fette sets up Goa tablet testing unit
The unit, which cost €600,000 to set up according to the Machinist.in website, houses laboratories for small-scale compression trials, sample production, materials analysis as well as capabilities for proof of concept tablet studies.
Fette’s Indian subsidiary, Fette Compacting Machinery India (FCI), will manage operations which will also include a training centre at which pharma customers can gain hands on experience of the latest tabletting platforms.
FCI MD Venkata Subramanian told India’s Business Standard that: “The centre is basically to support our clients in India, both the domestic and multi national pharma companies which have manufacturing facilities in India.”
Subramanian also predicted that the Goa unit will generate business for the wider Fette group, particularly in terms of technology sales.
He told The Hindu newspaper that: “FCI will enable the manufacturers to fit into the production line by installing the tool and pressing machines, which are either being imported from Germany or sourced locally.”
FCI has installed 80 tabletting machines in pharmaceutical production facilities across Indian and claims both local majors like Lupin and Dr Reddy’s and global players like GSK, Sanofi Aventis and Ranbaxy as customers.
With the new centre up and running FCI is aiming to sell between 35 and 40 more this year and generate revenues of €14m.
The Goa competence centre is the fourth that Fette has established outside Germany and is the third in Asia, behind the unit it recently opened in Singapore and the facility it set up in Nanjing, China in 2004.
