The Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) Lyka Group is in talks with various multinational companies for contract manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients in cardiovascular and diabetes segment.

The company is eyeing multinationals which outsource manufacturing of drugs from India for a wide variety of generics.

"We already have a proven ability in these segments and are now aggressively marketing our manufacturing capabilities to the multinationals to garner the business of bulk outsourcing," a top Lyka official said.

The company is already exporting its products to more than 25 countries and has registered around 475 products to various parts of the world including south-east Asia, eastern Europe, south America, east and west Africa and west Asia. The company expects the total number of registrations to reach around 750 products in the near future.

Apart from the contract manufacturing in cardio-vascular segment, the company is also exporting many products in the anti-infective segment including a domestic drug -- FAS 3 Kit -- a new concept in the syndromic management of the vaginal discharge.

The company plans to take these FAS 3 products to unregulated markets of Latin America, Vietnam, Russia and African nations. The product has a potential to garner sale of more than Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.20 billion).

The company's manufacturing plants at Tarapur and Ankleshwar have received WHO GMP and ISO-9002 certifications. The company is currently in the process of getting its plants US FDA- and UK MCA-complaint.

The company also has a 49:51 joint venture, Lyka Hetero Healthcare Ltd, with the Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) bulk drug major Hetero Drugs to market and distribute various formulations in India.

Lyka has received Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) for transferring some of its domestic market products to this new company.

In addition, Lyka Labs is also entitled to receive royalty at four per cent of net sales for three years. Lyka has already deployed this money to pay off its debts which would bring down its debt servicing to very low levels and implement VRS.

The Hetero JV would contribute significant revenues in the years to come, as all the new molecules presently under research would be marketed through it. Over the next three years, the venture is expected to clock a turnover of about Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.50 billion).

Hetero Drugs markets its products in over 50 countries. With a strong research and development division, it has been able to develop processes for over 150 molecules.

This joint venture has already tasted its first success through the launch of LYFLOX (Gatifloxacin). The product has carved a niche for itself within three months of its launch. The company expects it to become a leader in the Gatifloxacin market.

The company became the second in the industry to launch the second generation Cox-2 selective NSAID valdecoxib early this month. Valdecoxib has a molecular superiority over the existing NSAID's available in the market, the company said.