Lupharma has received SEBI exemption from making an offer for 20 per cent of the equity, as the FIPB has allowed it to hike its equity stake to 51 per cent. Thus the controlling interest will be held by Lupharma GmbH and Knoll Pharmaceuticals will be its subsidiary.

Following the incident the company has been issued a closure order by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). The board has instituted a committee to look into the incident, which will also suggest remedial measures to prevent further occurrences.

The KSPCB has blamed the management of the company of negligence. The scrubber is a pollution control device used to convert gases released as a by product.

For Glaxo reduction Betnesol and Betnovate that contribute about 10.7 per cent to the company's turnover will affect its bottom line. For Knoll reduction in price of insulin, a high value product, will affect its profits. Pfizer will lose on sales of terramycin and oxytetracycline-based products. E. Merck will lose on sales of Vitamin E. The consumers, however, will benefit from the price reduction.

Ciba India is a fully-owned subsidiary of Ciba Speciality Chemicals AG, formed by the demerger of Ciba-Geigy's chemical division. FIPB has also approved Novartis Nutrition AG's entry into the Indian health food segment. This company will market speciality nutrition food products including: complete foods, food supplements and planned nutrition products.

Novartis Nutrition AG has subsequently entered into a joint venture with NEPL in which Novartis will hold 49 per cent equity stake and NEPL 51 per cent stake. The new company, christened Novartis Nutrition India, is targeting middle and higher end hospitals where the products could be used in caring for patients in intensive care, cardiac care and burns care. prominent brands of the company include: Resource, Sandosource, Impact, Meritene and Vivonex.

The broad-spectrum antibiotic called cytolex will hit the market in 1999 and will be used for treating foot ulcers in diabetics. The joint venture, with head quarters in Vadodara will go on stream in the first quarter of 1998 and will use the ASE Research Centre for development and will market through the networks of ASE and Sarabhai Piramal. The Plant will manufacture mangainins for its principal's global requirements, a first for a an Indian company.

The company showed a loss of Rs 78 crore on sales of Rs 176 crore on capital employed of Rs 1,145 crore. Financial institutions and banks have Rs 750 crore at stake in the company, and they are worried about the downturn in the company's performance. The company has defaulted on redemption of non-convertible debentures, public deposits and interest payments to money lenders.

The company's problems started with the late implementation of the Rs 850-crore expansion and diversification programme. The rehabilitation package being organised by ICICI is not likely to stop the losses because of the huge borrowings of Rs 800 crore.

HMGB has an agreement with the ailing Hindustan Antibiotics to run its Penicillin-G business.

Meanwhile Max-GB (equal partnership between Max (India) and GB) is set to double its capacity for semi-synthetic penicillin from 500 tpa to 1000 tpa. This is expected to trigger off a price war in a market rife with undercutting. The new capacity is expected to go on stream in the third quarter of 1998.

Meanwhile the American parent of Pfizer plans to increase its stake in the Indian subsidiary from 40 per cent to 51 per cent. it also intends to set up a wholly-owned research subsidiary in India. It is also in talks with Indian companies for strategic collaboration for a range of products it will bring to India after patent laws are enacted. The mode of buying the additional stake is being contemplated.

World-wide Novartis has presence in 49 therapeutic segments while in India it has presence in about 33 segments. Efforts are on to make its presence felt in the balance segments. There is remarkable lack of overlap between Ciba and Sandox products and the new Novartis products are expected to be likewise.

Section 10b of the DPCO allow full powers to the NPPA to review prices of decontrolled products in the public interest. In case of over-pricing the government may fix a price or profitability ceiling on the decontrolled products. This could lead to more products being subject to price control though the DPCO list of 74 drugs remain unchanged.

Rhone-Poulenc is expected to point to the price increase in codeine phosphate, one of the main ingredients of Phensedyl, which it buys from Government agencies. Both IDMA and OPPI have opposed the Government move.

A final decision by SEBI is pending till early February. Sun Pharma hold 35.64 per cent stake in GLO at present. The company received approval from the centre under section 370 of the Companies Act to increase its stake. The associate company, Virtuous Finance, had acquired 20.17 per cent earlier which Sun is trying to acquire now. Sun had bought 28 per cent of Gujarat Lyka from its promoters and bought another 7 per cent subsequently through an open offer.

This fully held subsidiary is Cheminova Agro's only manufacturing plant outside Denmark and will export monocrotophos, DDVP and acephate from its Indian plant.

The FIPB has rejected SmithKline's offer on the basis that paracetamol on which Crocin is based is reserved for the small-scale sector. SB Asia had also made considerable investment in upgrading the packaging of Crocin tablet and had dropped plans to introduce SmithKline's international brand Panadol in India.

After the merger German Remedies will be part of a giant corporation and will have more funds available for research and development.

At present, Asta holds 11.5 per cent of German Remedies with the other shareholders being: Heller, Becham, Schering and Boehringer Ingelheim.

GR's main brand is Asta's Derifylline, Kamillosan (a herbal cream), Honvan (a prostatic cancer drug), Azelastine (an anti-histamine)

Reportedly, the price paid for Epilex is approximately twice its ORG sales of Rs 5.1 crore. Knoll's rationale in buying the product is that it has another product - Eptoin - in the same category.

After selling Burnol to Reckitt Piramal, Knoll has acquired Epilex from Reckitt India.