• Antibiotics are used for the treatment against infectious diseases caused by micro organisms. The chance discovery of Penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming set the direction for mankind to fight against dreaded diseases and the first antibiotic "Penicillin" was and will always be an important antibiotic. Even today Penicillin is the cheapest and the most effective antibiotic known to mankind.

  • The Penicillin business can be categorized into following four major processes -

  1. Production of Penicillin on large scale by Fermentation

  2. Production of Intermediates like 6-APA and 7- ADCA etc

  3. Production of Bulk drugs (Semi Synthetic Penicillins and Semi Synthetic Cepholosporins) like Amoxycillin Tri hydrate, Cefadroxyl Mono hydrate etc.

  4. Formulation of Bulk drugs into Pharmacy packs

Very few companies in the world are fully integrated from Penicillin fermentation to formulations and Torrent Gujarat Biotech  is the only company in India to have integrated operations from Fermentation to Production of Semi Synthetic Penicillins and Semi Synthetic Cephalosporins.

  • Demand and effectiveness of Penicillin motivated Torrent Group and others to put up Penicillin plants in India in early 1990's. Torrent Gujarat Biotech was commissioned in June 1995. It achieved internationally acceptable Quality of products by 1996 and had the highest productivity among contemporary new generation plants.

  • Simultaneous capacity addition worldwide in early 90's and the market dynamics started affecting the Penicillin business globally from the year 1995. Situation became worst in the year 1997-98 when selling prices dived southwards from the level of around $20 per BU to $10 per BU and lower (Rs. 1025 per BU to Rs. 430 per BU and lower).

    But Torrent Gujarat Biotech strategically survived this onslaught. It not only increased its productivity / yields of the products but also introduced various innovative cost reducing manufacturing steps.

  • Torrent Gujarat Biotech has been awarded Certificate of suitability from European Directorate for the Quality Medicines (EDQM) for its Amoxycillin Tri hydrate. This has contributed to increased Exports to Europe.



  • The operating results of Torrent Gujarat Biotech Ltd started improving since 2000-01 leading to CAGR of 13% in three years ending 2002-03.



  • Penicillin-G was shifted from negative list of imports to OGL of Import & Export Policy of GOI from April 2003, making the product importable without any restrictions. The international prices have crashed since June 2003 from around $11 to $6 per BU. The domestic prices have also fallen in line with the international prices from Rs.600 to Rs.310 per BU making Penicillin operations unviable.



  • Penicillin industry is facing onslaught of import from China at unremunerative prices. This has led to adverse business environments and losses, since 2003-04. As a consequence, Torrent Gujarat Biotech Ltd had to suspend the production of Penicillin-G from April 2005.



  • Meantime, European Union has imposed Countervailing duty of 28.1% in 2005 on the Amoxycillin imported from the company making the product less competitive in European markets.