Ranbaxy to target Latin American markets

After having entrenched itself in North America, Europe, China and East Asia, Ranbaxy would concentrate on the Latin American markets, besides new Zealand and Australia, Khanna told newsmen on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) here today.

He did not rule out the possibility of having pharma manufacturing facility in some Latin American nation at a later date.

The company already has marketing operations in Central America and the Carribean Islands and has plans to establish a marketingoffice in Panama to accelerate growth.

In Latin America also, the company aims to form co-marketing alliances with local pharma majors, a policy followed by Ranbaxy worldwide. It has already received approval for marketing its products in Brazil and Argentina.

Khanna said, currently Ranbaxy has 22 joint ventures and subsidiaries abroad and 50 per cent sales comes through overseas operations. Ranbaxy would do its best to build strong research and development (R&D) capability through inhouse efforts and networking with reputed drug labs in India, he added.

Pharma major would work closely with labs like National Chemical Laboratories under the wing of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he said.

The newly-appointed chairman said the firm would step up budget for R&D and induct best talent in in-house research labs.