Local pharmaceutical distributors Indies Pharma Jamaica Ltd will this week publicly offer a part of its company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange with plans to expand its footprint into the Caribbean market with the funds raised.

The company remains tight-lipped on details of the offer. However, it is understood that Indies Pharma hopes to increase its market share by up to 10 per cent after listing. Currently the company is estimated to hold a 2.5 per cent share of the US$250 to US$300-million market.

GK Capital Management has been advising Indies Pharma for the last three years and is leading the initial public offering (IPO), playing the dual roles of Lead Arranger and Co-Broker. Sagicor Investments has been engaged as Co-Broker.

“The move to list on the junior Market is a big step for the company. The team is very much focused on continuing to profitably grow revenues. In this regard, we will allocate a considerable amount of resources into offering unique drug compositions such as HB Fortex, Grobital, Amloval, Flexim Plus Tablets, Flexim Plus Pain and Muscle Rub and the Nature’s Soul.

“As part of the push to expand, this IPO will provide the capital necessary to introduce additional products to the market,” said CEO of Indies Pharma Ltd Guna Muppuri said in a press release from the company.

Muppuri is seeking to grow Indies’ presence in the local pharmaceutical market over the next five years through the introduction of new products to the Jamaican market, with an eye on potentially expanding distribution to other markets.

More specifically, the CEO is eyeing the introduction of 30 drugs per year in the short term, up from 20, and ultimately 50 new drugs annually in the long term.

Based in Montego Bay, Indies Pharma, started in 2003 with Muppuri offering consultancy, regulatory and intellectual property services. Muppuri later ventured into third-party drug distribution, having sold his first pharmaceutical product on April 18, 2005.

Today the company distributes more than one hundred specialised and generic drug presentations on the local market.

“On average we introduce 10-15 pharmaceutical products per year and we want to continue on this growth trajectory. Our current product listing includes 21 disease segments, but the core of our business is the distribution of prescription and over- the-counter pharmaceuticals,” said Muppuri.

Indies Pharma is slated to expand its own line of products which include the Bioprist brand, a proprietary brand of pharmaceuticals and health care-related products owned by Bioprist Holdings, an affiliate company in common control.

Capital raised from the IPO will also be used to expand the company’s distribution network.

Indies Pharma holds a small but growing share of Jamaica’s pharmaceutical market including a number of products with strong market recognition such as HB Fortex and Lipirest which it has expanded through the years with an emphasis on high-quality manufacturing and long -term brand building.