Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer, Gujarat Research Allopathic Foundations (GRAF) is planning to expand its presence in the eastern part of the country with the launch of its specialty, diabetes, cardiology, gastroenterology and orthopedic products in the region.

Kolkata, Aug 13 (IBNS): Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer, Gujarat Research Allopathic Foundations (GRAF) is planning to expand its presence in the eastern part of the country with the launch of its specialty, diabetes, cardiology, gastroenterology and orthopedic products in the region.

Briefing the media about the company’s plans Shivender Aggarwal, Executive Director, GRAF, said, “The Eastern Indian pharmaceutical market holds significance for us since it accounts for about twenty percent of the overall Indian market.”

“We foresee the medical problems going rampant in India. Ample incidences of diverse lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and gastrointestinal disorders are occurring on a daily basis. We have come up with the solution of such disorders,” he added.

GRAF introduced a few medicines of present day lifestyle diseases like – Telmisartal (for hypertension), Glimigraf (diabetes) and Probiflora (gastrointestinal disorder).

Discussing over the sales expectation from eastern India, Aggarwal noted, “East hatched a whopping 14,000 Cr for the pharmaceutical industry. We are hopeful about 22 percent of the total sales will be generated from eastern states.”

GRAF has two state of the art plants at Himachal Pradesh (with a total workforce of 150 people) and Ahmedabad.

The Ahmedabad unit is right now under construction and will be fully operational by November, he said.

Since its inception twelve years back with 40 career at hand, GRAF is right now having a business turnover of 200 crore, 70-80 percent of which crop up from the Himachal plant.

Being asked about the reason of setting up the first unit in Himachal Pradesh instead of Gujarat, Aggarwal said, “We were given a total exemption of 16 percent of excise duty. Besides HP has the same infrastructure as in Gujarat.”

Spread over 25 acres the Ahmedabad plant is going to be a 50,000 square foot soft gel unit.

Aggarwal, however, showed no signs of interest to initiate a plant in West Bengal.

“Right now we are focussing on manufacturing and marketing. Presently we have no plans to set up any unit elsewhere.”