India's Aurobindo responds to White House urging, plans second U.S. plant

A drugmaker has responded to President Trump's urging that pharma companies should manufacture more of their drugs in the U.S., but it is not one of a host of Big Pharma execs that met with him last week to step up. Instead, the first new plant announcement comes from an Indian drugmaker. 

Aurobindo Pharma, which just started on its first U.S. plant in August, said today it will build a second sterile injectables plant at its site in New Jersey, Reuters reports.

"With the current landscape of what's happening with the U.S. White House administration, and some of the things that may change there, clearly,



we don't think having capacity in the U.S. would be detrimental at this point," Bob Cunard, head of Aurobindo’s U.S. operations, said in an earnings briefing, according to the news service.

Hyderabad-based Aurobindo, which derives about half of its finished drug sales from the U.S., still produces most of those in India, where it has half a dozen plants. Today, the company reported third-quarter earnings of 3.9 billion INR ($58.4 million), up 11.5%. It said that U.S. sales of both oral and injected drugs were up 12% for the quarter but that pricing pressure on generic meds in the U.S. had dampened its earnings.