Natco suspends API production due to severe Indian floods
Record-breaking rainfall has forced Natcopharm to suspend operations at an API plant in Chennai.
The Indian drug and API maker was forced to stop production at its wholly owned subsidiary, Natco Organics, in Menali, Chennai, after the Indian city was hit with the heaviest downpour in over a century.
In a statement sent to the Bombay Stock Exchange this week, the company said the facility “has temporarily suspended operations due to flooding caused by incessant rains in the plant area,” though the firm believes the actions will impact or impair API supply or any pipeline launches associated with the site.
The plant, which makes several oncology related APIs, is also “adequately insured” the firm said, covering any losses incurred by the “natural calamity,” though the firm will assess the full damage once the plant is back in operational mode.
Adverse Weather
Natco is not the first pharma-related manufacturer to be hit by adverse weather conditions. Indian CMO Shasun was affected by cyclonic storm Thane in December 2011, costing the company INR 15m ($280,000) per day.
Meanwhile, power outages at Dow Chemical’s plant in Louisiana caused by two hurricanes in 2008 disrupted manufacturing and affected over half of its PEG production.
And Hurricane Irene’s rampage up the East Coats of the US in August 2011 led to minor flooding and power outages at facilities run by GSK, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Teva, but most sites came out of the storm relativelt unscathed.
