Abbott India Ltd. is one of the leading multinational pharmaceutical companies in India and operates with an owned manufacturing facility in Goa and various independent contract/third party manufacturers based across the country. The Company sells its products through independent distributors primarily within India. It provides products and solutions across various therapeutic areas such as Women's Health, Gastroenterology, Central Nervous System, Metabolics, Multi-Specialty, Vaccines, Consumer Health, etc. Its global products include Brufen, Prothiaden, Thyronorm and Leptos.
The company has four divisions. The Primary Care division markets products in the areas of pain management and gastroenterology. The Specialty Care-Methabolics and Urology division provides solutions in the areas of thyroid, obesity, diabetes and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The Specialty Care-Neuroscience division has a varied portfolio with specialty products in neurology and psychiatric segments. Hospital Care offers products in the field of anesthesiology and neonatology, such as Forane, Sevorane and Survanta.
Abbott India Ltd was originally incorporated on August 22, 1944 as Boots Pure Drug Company (India) Ltd. The company name was changed to The Boots Company (India) Ltd on November 1, 1971, thereafter to Boots Pharmaceuticals Ltd on January 1, 1991. In October 31, 1995 the name was changed to Knoll Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and in July 1, 2002, they got their present name Abbott India Ltd.
In the year 2002, the company sold their Jejuri Undertakings together with assets and liabilities as a going concern. In the year 2003, the company's wholly owned subsidiary company, Lenbrook Pharmaceuticals Ltd was amalgamated with the company.
In the year 2004, the company started the production of Capsules with the capacity of 27 Millions Nos. In the year 2005, they further increased the capacity to 56 Million Nos. Also, they started a new project of producing Nutritional Products with the installed capacity of 600 Tonnes.
In the year 2006, the company increased the production capacity of Tablets by 236 Million Nos to 686 Million Nos. In the year 2008, they further increased the production capacity of Tablets by 769 million Nos to 1455 million Nos. They launched Digene Total, buffered pantoprazole tablet for quick and sustained antacid action and Brugel a novel formulation for sprains and strains. Also, they launched Thyronorm 150, Digene Sugar Free Tablet and Gel during the year.
The Buy-Back Committee of the Board of Directors of Abbott India at its meeting held on 9 July 2008 approved buy-back of 7.97 lakh fully paid-up equity shares of the company via the tender offer method, at a price of Rs 630 per share.
The Board of Directors of Abbott India Ltd. and Solvay Pharma India Ltd. at their respective meetings held on 24 November 2010 unanimously approved the draft scheme for the amalgamation of Solvay Pharma India into Abbott India under sections 391 to 394 of the Companies Act 1956. The swap ratio for the merger recommended is 2:3. In other words, every two shares of the Solvay Pharma India Ltd. will entitle their holder to three shares of Abbott India Ltd.
On 17 May 2011, Abbott Capital India Limited sold 2.24 lakh shares out of its total holding of 94.28 lakh shares in Abbott India Limited by way of an on market transaction. As a consequence, the promoter shareholding in Abbott India Limited after the merger of Solvay Pharma India Limited into Abbott India Limited will be 74.98%. Therefore, the listing of shares issued pursuant to the share exchange ratio in the merger will not result in the public shareholding in Abbott India Limited falling below 25%, as required under Clause 40A of the Listing Agreement.
On 7 September 2011, Abbott India completed the allotment of 75.74 lakh equity shares to the shareholders of Solvay Pharma India Ltd in the ratio of 2:3, in terms of the Scheme of Amalgamation of Solvay Pharma India Ltd with Abbott India.
The Board of Directors of Abbott India at its meeting held on 3 June 2013 decided to defer the proposal received by the company for the sale and transfer of, or other appropriate restructuring of, the proprietary pharmaceuticals division (PPD) of the company. Abbott Laboratories, the ultimate parent corporation of Abbott India, has separated into two publicly traded companies - one in diversified medical products and the other in research-based pharmaceuticals. The parent company for the research-based pharmaceutical companies is AbbVie Inc., a Delaware corporation. For the year ended 31 December 2012, the PPD business accounted 4.73% of net sales of Abbott India.
With effect from the financial year ended 31 March 2014, the company changed its accounting year from year ended 31 December 31 to year ended 31 March. Accordingly, financial statements are prepared for 15 months' period from 1 January 2013 to 31 March 2014. The Drug Price Control Order, 2013 has brought several of the company's products under price control. The company reduced the prices of the products covered under the new DPCO, which resulted in an adverse impact of Rs 11,00.00 Lakhs on Sales and Profits of the company during the period 2013-14. During the period, the company sold residential properties which yielded a profit of approximately Rs 12,20.00 Lakhs.
During the period under review, the company's General Care therapeutic segment achieved a turnaround, moving from a negative growth of 4.6% to positive double digit growth of 13.5%. This was possible through stellar performance in key brands: Betonin, Kinetone, Digecaine and Digene growing faster than their participated market.
For the central nervous system (CNS) therapeutic area, the persistent emphasis on a continuum of care approach made the company's Zolfresh brand number 2 brand through the period 2013-14.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2015, the company's General Care Division launched a new product Arachitol Nano.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2016, Abbott India launched 17 new products in various therapy segments, which together contributed 1.9% of the Net Sales of the company. During the year under review, the company entered into a licensing arrangement with Bharat Biotech India Limited to market vaccines in immunology segment.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2017, Abbott India launched 10 new products in various therapy segments, which contributed 0.7% of the sales of the company.
Abbott India formed new Business Unit GI Advance in January 2018 to build new products on a build, operate, transfer model.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2018, the company Women's Health & Gastrointestine division launched 2 new products - Cystofert (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and Letrolife (Ovulation). The Gastroenterology division launched 4 new products - Duphalac Bulk (Gut Health), Duphapro (Constipation), Udiliv 450 (NAFLD) and Duphalac Lemon Flavor (Laxative). The GI Prospera division launched 3 new products - Velpaclear (Hepatitis C), Antoxipan (Pain Management in chronic pancreatitis) and Heptral T (ALD/NAFLD).
During the year under review, the Metabolics business unit launched one new product - Combinorm (Probiotic - Bacterial Vaginosis). The Central Nervous System business unit launched 2 new products - Inderal 20 (Migrane) and Cerebion (Stroke/Brain Injury).
The Consumer Care Division launched 5 new products - Rashfree Natural Cream (Diaper Rash Cream), Digene Paan Flavour (Antacid), Digene Pudina Pearls (Digestive), Cremaffin Fresh (Laxative) and Brufen Active (Pain Relief Ointment).
During the year under review, Abbott India received approvals to conduct phase 3 studies in adults/elderly and pediatrics in parallel for its Influvac, Quadrivalent Vaccine (QIV) Program.
During the year, Abbott India granted a loan of Rs 200 crore to Alere Medical Private Limited, India (a Related Party as per the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015) for a period of six months on December 26, 2017, at an interest rate of 10% per annum pursuant to the provisions of Section 186 of the Companies Act, 2013 and Rules framed thereunder, to pay off its existing inter-company trade liability. The said loan is guaranteed by Abbott Laboratories, USA i.e. the ultimate holding company.
During the FY2018,the company executed 23 new studies,published 14 publications in major indexed journals and made 7 international congress presentations.
During the FY2019,the company executed 25 new studies, published 45 articles in major indexed journals, with 6 international presentations.
The company has been awarded THE MOST INNOVATIVE MNC OF THE YEAR 2019 at the 12th Pharma Leaders Award.
During the FY2020, the company executed 12 new studies, published 16 articles in major indexed journals, along with making four international presentations.
During the FY2021, there was a innovation in Brufen Coating formula which led to 50% increase in coating Installed capacity in 2 shifts from 675 mio tabs to 1,012 mio tabs without any capex. Increase in installed capacity will help site to produce all Brufen SKU's in-house as well as scope for internalization of new coated product.
During the year 2020-21, the company executed 8 new studies, published 8 articles in major indexed journals. All the studies were conducted in compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and regulatory requirements.
During the year 2022, company continued portfolio expansion and launched 10 new differentiated products in the market to meet increasing healthcare needs. It increased presence in high growth therapy areas such as adult vaccination and new sub-therapies like menopause. It strengthened the multi-channel engagement and leveraged technology to engage with patients and doctors for better health outcomes. It empowered patients across multiple therapies for vertigo, epilepsy, influenza, Vitamin D, insomnia with multi-media awareness campaigns. It led strategic partnerships with key associations to advance therapy shaping standards. It lead differentiated Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) facing initiatives to drive therapy leadership in key therapeutic areas. It brought synergy in patient care efforts through launch of a Center of Excellence.
During the year 2022, three new products viz. Riligol (post partum haemorrhage), Preservgest (pregnancy maintenance) and Femoston 2/10 (postmenopausal symptoms) were launched. It further launched two unique products, PreservGest, which is a micronized progesterone, and Arachitol Gummies, Vitamin D and Calcium Gummies in the multi-speciality medicine portfolio. Its strong presence in Gastrointestinal space was further strengthened with the success of Digeraft. In this portfolio, it also launched a unique pre+probiotic, Florachamp, to help restore gut balance.
During the year 2022, Florachamp (i.e., probiotic for irritable bowel syndrome) was launched for Gastroenterology therapeutic area. To expand the Multi-Specialty portfolio, the Company launched a new brand Arachitol Gummies, an innovative orange flavored FSSAI approved to fulfill daily requirements of Vitamin D and Calcium. It launched Havshield, vaccine for immunization against Hepatitis-A in line with Vaccines portfolio. It also launched In-Home-Vaccination' and FLUVaccine-Reminder' service to improve the vaccine compliance. The Company also partnered with over 12 medical associations to drive capability building in various therapeutic areas. It used digital technologies to reach out to doctors and provide therapy updates to them.
During the year 2023, the Company launched Brufen P (Ibuprofen + Paracetamol) . Focusing on the need gap of hypothyroidism treatment, it launched Liothyronine (T3) molecule - Linorma T3 tablet. New products like Femoston Mini (post-menopausal symptoms), Solfe extra tablet (iron deficiency anemia) and Cetropro vial (IVF) were launched on Women's health portfolio during the year 2023. Cortirowa OD (ulcerative colitis), Digeraft XT (gastroesophageal reflux), Digeraft Plus (gastroesophageal reflux) and Cremagel-L (anal fissures) were launched.