Sartorius to double production facility investment

bangalore: sartorius india, a bangalore-based biotech engineering firm, is set to double its investment into its production facility. the company told the times of india on thursday that it is prepared to invest another rs 25 crore in the facility, to take advantage of growing opportunites in the sector. it has already spent close to rs 25 crore in the existing facility.sartorius india general manager (biotech & projects) bhalachandra lele said the company was proposing to get into the field of medical biotechnology, and for this to be realised, production facilities had to be upgraded. lele said high investment is the need of the hour in the sector, which places a great deal of emphasis on research and planning. the rs 35-crore sartorius india has also been actively involved in setting up a biotechnology incubator park in chennai, in association with the tamil nadu industrial development corporation (tidco). lele said the incubator park in chennai is likely to be completed within a year, with an investment of about rs 30 crore. he said talks with the karnataka government to set up an incubator park in bangalore was also progressing briskly. discussions with the maharashtra industrial development corporation to put a biotechnology park in the state have also reached an advanced stage, lele said. company officials also said sartorius india wants to act as a single-window solution provider for pharma-bioprocess engineering, membrane and separation technologies. a company official said sartorius india is still going strong on the weighing instruments business, its initial foray. "applying mechatronics in biotechnology is now the name of the game in that category," he said. chairman and managing director cherian philip had started the company in 1991 under the name of sfs technologies. sartorius ag of germany then picked up a 51 per cent stake in the company. sartorius india''s clients in the past have included pharma firms such as alembic and zydus cadila.