Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a leading pharmaceutical company headquartered in Chennai, India involved in the manufacture of cephalosporin and non-cephalosporin bulk actives, formulations and nutraceuticals. With exports spanning more than 75 countries, Orchid is the largest manufacturer-exporter of cephalosporin bulk actives in India and is ranked amongst the Top 5-cephalosporin producers in the world.

    A first generation enterprise founded in 1992 by K Raghavendra Rao, Orchid has been recognised as the only company in the Indian Pharmaceutical industry to have recorded remarkable growth in less than a decade of inception.

    Orchid's world-class manufacturing facilities for bulk actives, including the latest USFDA compliant facilities, are located in Alathur, a little away from Chennai and in Aurangabad, near Mumbai. Orchid also has dedicated manufacturing facilities for nutraceutical bulk active ingredients and formulations in Alathur. Orchid's R&D facility located at Sholinganallur in Chennai is considered among the most advanced and state-of-the-art centre for applied research and analytical development. It also houses the newly commissioned New Drug Discovery infrastructure and a world-class pre-clinical toxicology and pharmacology centre.

    Orchid has received two approvals from the USFDA for its flagship product, Cephalexin and sterile API product Cefazolin. Orchid has also been awarded Certificates of Suitability (CoS) from the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) for four of its products. Orchid is one of the few pharmaceutical companies of its size and scale to have received the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 certifications for its world-class quality and environmental management systems respectively. The Aurangabad facility of Orchid was recently awarded the ISO 14001 (Environment Management System) and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Management System) certifications by KPMG.

    Aimed at the regulated markets, an additional USFDA compliant manufacturing facility for sterile and non-sterile bulk actives has been commissioned. A state-of-the-art Formulations facility which will cater to the US Generics market is soon to be inaugurated at Irrungattukottai near Chennai.

    Orchid has undertaken several initiatives to position itself strategically in the evolving global pharmaceutical paradigm. From a core competence in manufacture of cephalosporin bulk drugs, Orchid has evolved into a composite pharmaceutical company that has distinctly moved up the pharmaceutical value chain.

    Orchid today has strong capabilities and a global standing in the three critical segments of bulk actives, formulations and drug discovery which together define the profile of any truly global, composite pharmaceutical corporation.