In a move signifying the emergence of India as an outsourcing hub for pharmaceutical products after establishing its mettle in information technology, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd on Tuesday announced an agreement with Advanced Medical Optics Inc for global supply of select eye care products.

"We will be supplying form fill and seal solution products to AMO for 60 countries which is expected to bring in revenues to the tune of $25 million per annum," Ajay Piramal, chairman, Nicholas Piramal told reporters in New Delhi.

He said the agreement will have to be renewed after five years and added that the supply of products as per the agreement will begin in early 2005.

Piramal said the company had invested about Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) in its Pithampur facility to upgrade it to meet the requirements for AMO.

The company is also talking to some other multinational companies for similar tie-ups and will be announcing one more such agreement before the end of this financial year, he said.

After focusing on the domestic market for a long time, Nicholas had now decided to look at the export market for growth and would look at partnering with companies across for the complete lifecycle of the product, he said.

Upbeat about exports, Piramal said the company was expecting about Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) as export sales this fiscal which is expected to double in 2005.

AMO is an Allergen offshoot which was spun off as a separate company in 2002.

Nicholas already has a tie-up with Allergen for manufacturing and distributing its products in India and South East Asia.

On the company's agreement with Roche, Piramal said Nicholas was still working with the company in the area of diagnostics which included products like glucometers and was distributing some of their biotech products.

In biotechnology, he said the company would follow the strategy of developing products in-house as well acquiring it while working in partnerships.

Stating that NPIL had recently entered into an agreement with Biogen in line with this strategy, Piramal said the company would be looking at more such tie-ups to enhance its presence in the biotech space.

Asked about the overseas listing plans, Piramal said the company did not have any immediate plans as it had adequate funds to meet its requirements and would do it at "the right" time.