Pfizer to expand manufacturing and R&D capacities: Meenakshi Nevatia, MD, Pfizer

NEW DELHI: Pfizer Limited is expanding its manufacturing capacity and focusing on research and development, said Meenakshi Nevatia, Managing Director of Pfizer Limited on Tuesday. Speaking with ANI Nevatia said that the company is aiming to bring more made in India products in the market.

The company is in the middle of shifting its oncology, and chemotherapy, products from Australia to Gujarat. "Pfizer is completely 100 per cent committed to India. Our expansion takes different forms, starting with R&D, where we are continuously expanding.

We have almost about 1,500 people in Chennai largely in our R&D organisation, including one center at the IIT Madras Research Park, where we are just expanding our capacity 50 per cent.

The second is manufacturing. Almost 70 per cent of what we sell in India, we make in India either with our own plant in Goa or also through contract partners, almost 18 partners around the country," she said adding that the company has only export-oriented unit for sterile injectables, the only one in Asia.

Pfizer is expanding its research and development (R&D) capabilities, with 1,500 employees in Chennai and a research center at IIT Madras. Nevatia said that Pfizer has started establishing pockets of global capability centers in India.

"We just recently launched an analytic centre for 80 people based out of Mumbai. And there's a lot more to come in that space. So I think if you look across our business system, each piece is expanding in its own way. As a result, the whole entity is definitely expanding its commitment to our country," she added.

Pfizer MD further stated that the company is looking to bring more and more "adult vaccinations" into the country. Recently, Pfizer has launched a specialised centre at a hospital in Gurugram and is planning to start more such centres to work on adult vaccination.

"We are already in the pneumococcal space with adult vaccination and looking to continue to bring more products into the country right now we are working in pneumococcal where we do plan to bring advancements continuously and we are always looking to bring more vaccines it requires a certain regulatory process including clinical studies so we are just evaluating how we start that off before we can launch it," she said.

Pfizer Limited, in collaboration with NIPER-Ahmedabad, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, NITI Aayog, and Social Alpha, on Monday announced the six winners of the NIPER-A edition of Pfizer's flagship INDovation program for healthcare start-ups. (ANI)