Dive Brief:
- Granules India will invest $35 million to expand its 100,000-square foot research and development facility in Fairfax, Virginia, a move expected to create 102 new jobs .
- The Hyderabad-headquartered manufacturer first established the Virginia facility in 2014 in a bid to strengthen its U.S. presence.
- Fairfax County successfully competed against New Jersey to win the new project, which was unveiled by Virginia Governor Terry McAullife Monday.
Dive Insight:
Granules India has eight research and manufacturing sites spread across India, China and the U.S. The company manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as pharmaceutical formulation intermediates and finished dosages.
The drugmaker filed its first two Abbreviated New Drug Applications from the Virginia facility in March and April, Granules chairman Krishna Chigurupati said on a recent earnings call
This year, the company expects to file 12 ANDAs, including four more from Virginia and six from its India-based sites, which help build revenues from its API business.
While revenue growth last year was checked by capacity constraints in manufacturing API, margins have improved, leading to a 34% bump in profits.
This year the company is increasing its API capacity by 15,000 tons per year for manufacturing the drugs paracetamol, metformin and guaifenesin at its manufacturing site at Bonthapally, India. The addition should help ease some of the previous delays, Chigurupati said.
Although Indian manufacturers have increasingly come under scrutiny from U.S. regulators over quality concerns, the U.S. market's large size makes a broader presence overseas enticing.