Bajaj Healthcare Limited (BHL) announced on Wednesday that it will foray into the highly regulated opiate processing business for the Indian government. It said that it is the first private player to be awarded a tender for opiate processing, which was a highly-regulated and government-owned business. It further added that the government has deregulated opiate processing to a private player for the first time.
The company said that this will open up a new stream of revenue that has immense potential growth, as Bajaj Healthcare is currently the only player for government-allocated opiate processing on a long term basis.
BHL that manufactures APIs, intermediates and formulations, has been awarded two tenders for manufacturing of “Concentrated Poppy Straw (CPS) and Alkaloids/Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from unlanced poppy capsules along with straw through CPS-Reg and Opium Gum”, it said.
It has been given two letters of award to manufacture Alkaloids and APIs from processing of 500 MT of unlanced poppy capsule, along with straw on an annual basis, and to manufacture Alkaloids & APIs from processing of 100 MT of opium gum on an annual basis.
The company said that it will execute these tenders at their API manufacturing unit at Gujarat’s Savli, under strict protocols prescribed by the governments. It added that the derived APIs and extracts are normally used in a wide range of pharmaceutical applications.
Anil Jain, Joint Managing Director, Bajaj Healthcare said, “We have been awarded two tenders for the supply of Opium derived Alkaloids & APIs to the GOI, under long term contracts and expect successive orders under similar tenders, to scale up to processing of ~6,000 MT of Poppy Straw & Opium Gum in the next 5 years.”
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