ManKind plans to build manufacturing plant in the Himalayas
The Delhi company, which is not to be confused with US inhaled insulin developer MannKind Corporation, will spend INR2bn ($30m) on new manufacturing facilities in India in 2016 according to a report in the Economic Times newspaper.
One of the new plants – which will make finished dosage forms for the Indian market – will be constructed at an as yet unchosen site in Sikkim, a mountainous State in the North West of the country that borders Nepal and Tibet.
Sikkim is popular with drugmakers despite the logistical challenges associated with running facilities in the Himalayas.
Under State law, manufacturers that set up in the region before April 2017 will not have to pay taxes on revenues generated by products made there for 10 consecutive years.
ManKind’s plant is scheduled to be operational next March. The firm will join Cipla, Sun Pharma, Zydus Cadila, Alembic, IPCA, Alkem Lab, Intas Pharma, Torrent Pharma and Unichem which all have manufacturing operations in the State.
The second new ManKind facility – which is expected to open next summer – will be built at a site in Behror in Rajasthan. The Indian drugmaker plans to make a range of active pharmaceutical ingredients at the facility (API).
ManKind – which already operates manufacturing facilities in Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh - also plans to build a facility in Udaipur, also in Rajasthan, in 2017 or 2018 according to Managing Director Sheetal Arora.
Arora told The Tribune that: “As we grow in size, we want to ensure that maximum production is in house.
“Though we have 14 manufacturing facilities in Himachal Pradesh [ten of which are operated by contractors], but as the tax holiday in Himachal has now ended, we have decided to set up the new units in Sikkim, which still has a tax holiday.”
ManKind did not respond to a request for comment.
