Aurobindo Pharma to form R&D arm

Hyderabad: The city-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd is forming a wholly owned subsidiary for collaborative research here and is planning to hire over 2,000 scientists by 2008. Additionally, the company is looking at crossing $1-billion mark in revenue over next two to three years and is scouting for acquisitions in Europe. The firm is currently in talks with a small domestic firm for acquisition, he said, refusing to give further details. The modalities were being worked out for setting up a subsidiary for collaborative R&D, which would be functional in 2008 with over 2,000 research professionals. The firm is also setting up an active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) plant in the Pharma City in Visakhapatnam. While the New Jersey plant would start production in September, API plant and R&D subsidiary would be operational in 2008.