Sanofi Manufacturing Plant, India

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi's manufacturing facility in Goa, India, is located in the Verna Industrial Park. It is owned by Sanofi's Indian arm Aventis Pharma. The facility, which performs manufacturing and packaging functions, became fully operational in 1999. An interim manufacturing facility was opened in 1997.

The Goa facility is one of Sanofi's Pharmaceuticals Intercontinental operational units. It manufactures solid dosage forms for the Indian market, Daonil bulk tablets for the European market and Paracetamol, Cocodamol and Co-dydramol for the UK market.

The plant has approximately 230 employees.

Sanofi also owns a Global Development Centre in the campus. The centre develops solid dosage formulations for Sanofi's Asia-Pacific operations.

Aventis Pharma operates one more pharmaceutical and chemical plant in India, in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. It also manufactures its products at 17 toll sites.

Sanofi's Goa plant design

The Goa plant complies with good manufacturing practices (GMP) standards. It has a modular design with its components built elsewhere and brought to the site for installation. The plant has room for future expansions. The production modules are linked to a two-floor corridor.

Adhering to the health and safety environment (HSE) norms, the facility has systems in place to safeguard its personnel, property and environment. The air-handling systems have been designed to ensure there is no cross contamination of products and also to protect the workers and the environment from contamination.

Separate paths have been built for the movement of personnel and material.

The facility has approvals from the World Health Organisation, Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention certified by the German Regulatory Authority, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency of the UK, Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia and Medicine Control Council of South Africa.

Indian manufacturing facility details

The plant features fluid-bed processing equipment used for granulation of powders. It enables multistep granulation, which involves pre-heating, granulating and drying of the powders. A quality control lab along with packing material and artwork design machinery are included in the facility.

Sanofi-aventis global development centre

Sanofi-aventis, the vaccines division of Sanofi, has opened its global development centre (GDC) on the Goa premises in December 2007. It is the company's first pharmaceutical development centre in Asia. It is also the group's single largest investment in India at €15m.

The 2,600m2 centre supports the group in introducing new medicines in Asia-Pacific. The centre is used for analytical and pharmaceutical formulations and has a capacity to develop 12 compounds a year.

Sanofi has opened the centre with a view to expand its presence in the region and tap the local markets. It also provides impetus to worldwide formulation efforts of the group.

Products manufactured at Sanofi's manufacturing facility in Goa

The facility manufactures Amaryl and Daonil tablets for blood glucose reduction, Cardace for hypertension and congestive heart failure after acute myocardial infarction, Frisium for seizures and Stilnoct for insomnia. All these are targeted at the local market.

Bulk Daonil tablets are exported to Spain, Canada and South Africa. Pain relief medicine Panadiene is exported to Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The plant also exports pain relief drugs Co-drydamol, Mersyndol and Paracetemol.

Marketing commentary for Sanofi

In India, Sanofi operates through five entities - Aventis Pharma, Sanofi-Synthelabo (India), Sanofi Pasteur India, Shantha Biotechnics and Genzyme India (latest entity). It has more than 3,700 employees in the country.

The company has been doing business in India since 1956.

The Indian pharmaceutical market grew by about 17% in 2010 and is forecast to be the eighth largest in the world by 2015. Sanofi plans to tap this growth as part of its strategy to expand in emerging markets.

Sanofi India has acquired vaccine manufacturer Shantha Biotechnics in 2009.

Aventis Pharma bought the nutraceutical formulations business of India-based Universal Medicare in August 2011.

The Universal Medicare products acquired by Aventis have annual sales of INR1bn ($20m).