DIVI S LABORATORIES Share price

BRIEF HISTORYDivi's Laboratories Limited was incorporated on October 12 1990 asDivi's Research Centre Private Limited. Subsequently the name of theCompany was changed to Divi's Laboratories Private Limited on October26 1994 and was thereafter converted into a public limited Company onDecember 12 1994 and renamed as Divi's Laboratories Limited.The Company commenced its activities in 1991 as a research andconsultancy organisation for developing commercial processes for ActivePharmaceutical Ingredients ("API") and intermediates. The Company hasbeen operating its research facility called Divi's Research Centre("DRC") from 1991 from its premises at Sanathnagar Hyderabad. Since1992 DRC has been recognised as an 'R&D Centre' by the Department ofScientific and Industrial Research Government of India. The Companysupplied process technology on turnkey basis to several generic drugmanufacturing companies.During 1994 the Company entered into manufacturing operations for APIand intermediates. It set up a multi-purpose manufacturing facility ona 300 acre site located at village Lingojigudem Choutuppal MandalNalgonda District in Andhra Pradesh with a 1000 cubic meters ofreactor capacity and a second research facility. The Plant is locatedabout 55 kms from Hyderabad on Hyderabad - Vijayawada National Highway.This project was part funded by way of term loans from a consortium ofBanks/ Financial Institutions to the extent of Rs. 3178 Lacs. TheCompany also made a private placement of unsecured Fully ConvertibleDebentures ("FCDs") aggregating Rs.2027 Lacs which have since beenconverted into 2549027 Equity Shares of the Company. The projectcommenced commercial operations in October 1995 with production ofNaproxene and other APIs for the export markets.Thereafter the Company has been making several additions to itsproduct portfolio and currently manufactures over 60 products. Some ofthe main products include Naproxene Naproxene Sodium DextromethorphanHydrobromide Diltiazem CIS Lactum Imaging Agents viz. X-Ray contrastmedia in the generic product segment besides other Intermediates. TheCompany is also involved in custom synthesis of intermediates for thediscovery products of MNCs for clinical trials/ launch. The Company hasalso ventured into the field of peptides synthesis. It has alsocommenced research in the areas of nucleotides and caretenoids whichit believes holds significant future potential.The Company has received several awards for its export performancequality and R&D efforts and has been recognised as a 'Trading House" byDirector General of Foreign Trade Ministry of Commerce Government ofIndia. It has also received certifications for ISO-9001 ISO-9002ISO-14001 OHSAS-18001 WHO-GMP European Certificate of Suitability(CoS) and has filed 9 Drug Master Files ("DMF") with US-FDA and theEuropean Directorate. The Company's manufacturing facility has beensuccessfully inspected by the US-FDA in September 2000.As part of its plans to increase its manufacturing capacity theCompany is in the process of setting up a second manufacturing facilityat village Chippada under Bheemunipatnam Mandal VisakhapatnamDistrict Andhra Pradesh. The Company has acquired a site of around314.855 acres with ready basic infrastructure. It is in the process ofobtaining all the requisite approvals and the commercial production isexpected to commence at this facility by March 1 2003.