Glaxo may make India high-end vaccine hub

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, the largest multinational drug maker in India, is planning to switch its manufacturing focus to high-end drugs and pharmaceutical products that cannot be easily copied.

The Rs 1,250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion) company may, according to sources, set up a new plant for this but the jury is still out on that. GSK Pharmaceuticals has around Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) in unused cash.

The company makes an array of volume products like Zantac at its Nashik facility and multivitamin capsules at its Mysore plant.

Its Thane plant is the largest active pharmaceutical ingredient facility for betametazone in Asia.

S Kalyansundaram, managing director of GSK Pharmaceuticals, told Business Standard, "The company's future endeavour will be to manufacture more high-tech products like sterile formulations and vaccines."

All GSK Plc group companies worldwide source vaccines from the parent company's Belgium facility to be marketed in different countries.