Lupin Limited, a renowned Mumbai-based transnational pharmaceutical company, has reportedly announced that it plans to grow its Brazilian operation into a major manufacturing and export hub in the Latin American region.
Reports cite, most of Brazil’s neighboring nations already recognize the approvals of the Brazilian drug regulator which is responsible for the supervision and approval of pharmaceuticals.
According to a formulations business report by Lupin, Brazil is the company’s highest growth market that accounts for over 35% of the sales in the region. The company’s Brazilian subsidiary, Medquímica, exhibited a 25% growth rate in FY2018 in terms of value, with sales crossing BRL 157 million. The pharmaceutical market in Brazil is valued at over $28 billion – making it the 6th largest in the world – it is projected to grow by approximately 11%.
Moreover, Latin America contributes over 4% to the company’s global revenue, and this number is anticipated to double over the next five years reaching 8%, claim sources familiar to the matter.
Lupin’s President for Latin America, Martin Mercer reportedly stated that the unit aims to start exporting pharmaceuticals from Brazil by 2019. Mercer further added that currently the unit depends on manual packaging. However, new packaging equipment is being installed and work is underway to augment the capacity to facilitate export to other Latin American nations.
For the record, import duties on finished pharmaceutical products in Brazil are extremely high which is what prompted the firm to begin manufacturing of pharma products in the country. After the Brazilian unit begins its export activities, it will become the third nation – the first two being India and Mexico – from where the firm exports its pharmaceutical products.
The Brazilian production unit would reportedly allow the company to compete with government tenders by listing attractive prices. The plant is capable of manufacturing around 200 million tablets (8 million packets) per month, claim sources.
