In its bid to accelerate global marketing, Himalaya Drug Company, henceforth is unifying all its offerings, including Ayurvedic Concepts, under one global brand 'Himalaya'. And by the end of next year Himalaya Herbal Healthcare intends to add three more marketing joint ventures across the globe to take the number to 17.

Announcing this at a press conference, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Ravi Prasad, said Himalaya Herbal Healthcare had projected a turnover of Rs. 250 crores for the year ending March 2002. At present, its export billing was about 12 per cent which, if its marketing strategy got in place, it should touch 50 per cent by the year 2007.

The marketing joint ventures would be in Romania, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa. The company had offshore offices in the U.S., UAE and Venezuela and had an offshore manufacturing unit in West Asia.

The global market for herbal healthcare was about $50 billion, he said and added that since the company had various products under different brand names in the global market, a critical step in its globalisation drive was to bring together all the products under one brand.

Mr. Prasad said with the introduction of Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) in the U.S., the doors had been opened to market herbal products in the U.S. since 1994. The European Union, he said, was likely to adopt the DSHEA norms either in a modified manner or in toto and when this happens the company would gain access to the EU markets. Dr. S. K. Mitra, Executive Director (Research and Technical Services), said the company would be introducing six new products next year, one of which would be to do with menopausal syndrome in women and osteoporosis.

Extensive studies were going using plants, seeds and flowers to develop a product to cure cancer. Similarly, research work was on in the areas of immune disorders and tropical diseases.