With an annual turnover of Rs 310 Cr, Himachal Pradesh-based Aishwarya Healthcare is one of India’s leading IVF manufacturers

In 2018, the pharma industry in India recorded a turnover of Rs 1,29,015, growing 9.4 percent every year. The pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in India form one of the largest in the world producing generic drugs, and meeting 50 percent of the global demand.

Aishwarya Healthcare is one such pharmaceutical company based out of Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. One of the top three manufacturers of IVF, it exports around 15-20 million units to more than 30 countries, including ones in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The company was founded by Neeraj Kumar Nir, a former employee of Coal India, in 2006, who teamed up with his wife, Gunjita Nir for the venture.

Neeraj says,

I always had an entrepreneurial approach towards life and wanted to work on something that could generate employment for the people. My relatives were already in the pharma industry and, gradually, I also stepped in.”

Aishwarya Healthcare was started with Rs 24 crore bank loan. It now records an annual turnover of Rs 310 crore. The company employs 2,000 people directly.

I an exclusive interaction with SMBStory, Brands of India Awards winner Neeraj Kumar Nir shares how he became one of the top three manufacturers of IVF in India.  

The edited excerpts of the interview:

SMBStory: How did you start Aishwarya Healthcare?

Neeraj Kumar Nir: Aishwarya Healthcare was started with a dream to make quality healthcare products in-house for the masses. I saw in the intravenous industry a huge opportunity for quality manufacturing with state-of-the-art-technology. Thus, we took our first step.

I started with small volume parenterals [injections less than or equal to 100 ml] but we were aware of the fact that to grow the business we had to expand our business model. The market size of intravenous fluids (IVF), our core offering, is pegged at approximately Rs 3,000 crore, and to raise the game, we forayed into large volume parenteral [injections that more than 100ml].

SMBS: How do you manufacture IVF?

NKN: We use Blow Fill Seal (BFS) technology to manufacture IVF. The basic concept of BFS is that a bottle is formed, filled, and sealed in a continuous process without any human intervention.

We know that any negligence in the manufacture of IVF is life-threatening and so, we use this technology to create quality products for the healthcare industry.

At present, we have a setup of six machines, each costing approximately Rs 25 crore, which manufacture IVF. We are also planning to increase the number of machines to become the leading manufacturers of IVF in the country.

SMBS: What are the other pharma products you manufacture?

NKN: We have four manufacturing units, with each location manufacturing different pharma products. Environmental factors and atmosphere conditions are taken into consideration to manufacture the pharma products and this is why each manufacturing unit is dedicated to the production of a specific product.

We have 30 manufacturing lines, of which we manufacture around 900 products for healthcare industry including, IVF, eye drops, cough syrup, tablets, capsules, ointments, etc.

SMBS: What has been Aishwarya Healthcare’s impact on the industry?

NKN: We are producing quality IVF products that are being used by prestigious institutions, including the armed forces, and medical corporations of various states like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.

Government hospitals are our biggest purchasers; we supply to Command Hospital in Leh as well.

SMBS: What are the challenges faced by the company, and who are you competing with?

NKN: We do not compromise on the quality of our products as we are producing for the pharma industry. Managing the quality with the cost is sometimes challenging but we are more focussed on maintaining the quality.

We ensure to have the latest technology at par with the companies worldwide and we are in tough competition with that.

SMBS: What are the key milestones so far in your journey?

NKN: In 2013, we acquired Celebrity Biopharma Pvt. Ltd, which caters to manufacturing of finished formulations like tablets, capsules, syrups, dry injections, and many more. We also launched a personal care brand, ‘Global Beauty Secrets’, in 2018 and also ‘Critiqual’ to cater to the critical care segment in the healthcare institutions.

SMBS: What are your future prospects?

NKN: India as a market is evolving, and it is a great time for brand like ours to offer quality healthcare products in India. In the future, we are planning to increase our IVF production by deploying more BFS tech machines. We also want to increase our export to 25 percent of the total production which is 15 percent at present.

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