Bhandari Industries - riding on the pharma boom

"Store in a cool, dry place.&qu
06 February 2001

"Store in a cool, dry place." How many times have we read this instruction on medicine packs, and how many times have we treated such instruction with the seriousness it deserves?

"You find medicines kept in bathrooms, on window sills, on kitchen shelves, open to moisture, sunlight, humidity, water vapour and bacteria," rues Mr. Mohan Bhandari, managing director, Bhandari Industries, a company providing protection to medicines against such practices.

Medicines are subject to the different elements in the atmosphere, which even penetrate through PVC film and can change the composition of the molecules of the medicines within, says Mr. Bhandari. Hence, it becomes important that the packaging is reinforced to reduce permeability and prevent penetration.

The Bilcare division of Bhandari Industries is in the business of enhancing the protective barrier for pharmaceutical packaging - PVC and blister packaging in particular - with a polyvinylidene chloride (PVdC) coating. The company has put up a 3,000 tpa PVdC coating plant at Khed, Rajgurunagar, 40 kms from Pune in Maharashtra, in alliance with a/c Folien and BASF, both of Germany.

Medical packaging has been a recent business for Bhandari Industries. The company began as a paper tube manufacturing company used as cores for high-speed winding of synthetic yarn. Beginning with its unit at Chakan near Pune, it now has three such units. These include a dedicated unit for Reliance Industries at Patalganga, and a joint venture, PT Bhandari Mishindo, in Purwakarta, Indonesia. Noted German financial institution, Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, better known as DEG, has recently acquired 21 per cent stake in the Indonesian venture.

The paper tubes business, or the Biltube division, accounts for a total capacity of 500 lakh tubes in India, and 7,000 tpa in Indonesia. The Indonesian plant is being expanded, phase-wise, to reach 16,000 tpa by June 2001.