Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (Orchid) is pharmaceutical company engaged in development and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished dosage forms. It is also engaged in research of new drugs. The company was Incorporated in the year 1992 as a 100% export-oriented unit (EOU).

Orchid has employee strength of over 3700 people, out of which over 600 are scientists, technologists and other professionals.

The drug major has two manufacturing unit for APIs located at Alathur and Aurangabad and three facilities for fosage forms at Irungattukottai and Alathur. Besides this it two research and development centres located at Sholinganallur and Irungattukottai, Chennai.

It has formed an alliance with North China Pharmaceutical Corporation (NCPC), which is the largest pharmaceutical group in China to manufacture and market pharmaceuticals products.

The company has formed distribution and marketing alliance with various global pharmaceutical corporations including Apotex, Actavis, Hospira and Dava, among others.

Orchid owns two subsidiaries, whose core focus are on drug discovery and development namely Orchid Research Laboratories in Chennai and Bexel Pharmaceuticals in the US. Besides this, it also has subsidiary such as Orgenus Pharma Inc (USA), Orchid Pharmaceuticals Inc (USA), Ogna Farma (South America) and Orchid Europe.

During March 2010, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals had completed the transaction for sale and transfer of Orchid's generic injectable finished dosage forms Pharmaceuticals business to Hospira Healthcare India, a subsidiary of Hospira, Inc.

In January 2011, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals had signed a memorandum of understanding with Great Lakes Institute of Management for setting up a centre of excellence in technopreneurship at Great Lakes campus near Chennai. The MoU was signed in the presence of APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, during the inauguration of Great Lakes' B-school festival, L’Attitude 13° 05’.

In April 2011, Orchid Chemicals had attained an out-of-court settlement with world's largest drug maker Pfizer Inc to sell a low-cost version of the American firm's patented anti-depressant drug, Effexor XR, (extended release) in the US market this fiscal.

In 2012
 - Orchid Pharma exit its Chinese JV with NCPC
 - Orchid Pharma enters into agreement to transfer its Penicillin & Penem API business & its API facilities in Aurangabad to Hospira for approximately US$ 200 million

In 2013
- Orchid enters into strategic partnership with Allecra Therapeutics for development of novel antibiotics

Products

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients- Orchid develops a wide range of APIs in category of oral cephalosporins, betalactams, special nutraceuticals, etc.

Formulations- Under this the company is engaged in developing formulation in various segment such anti-infectives, anti-oxidants, oral anti-diabetics, etc.

Awards

Orchid was awarded as the Top Indian Public Limited Company in Patent at the 5th National Intellectual Property Award 2013, organized by CII in partnership with the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion and Indian Intellectual Property Office, Government of India.
Orchid received EXIM Achievement Award 2012 for its meritorious export performance by The Tamil Chamber of Commerce, Chennai.

Orchid was conferred with the Export Excellence Award 2010-11 by MEPZ – Special Economic Zone, Government of India.

Orchid received EXIM Achievement Award 2011 for its meritorious export performance under the category Air Exports by The Tamil Chamber of Commerce, Chennai.

Orchid was conferred the Gold Patent Award for the year 2010-11 in recognition of its commendable contribution to R&D in Drug Discovery Sector by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council. The award was presented by Shri. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Orchid was awarded IGCW – 2011 Green Innovation Award for the outstanding research in the field of Green Chemistry & Engineering in 2011.

Orchid was conferred the Shrishti Good Green Governance (G3) Award in 2011. The award was presented by Mr. Salman Khurshid, Minister of Water Resources & Minority Affairs, Government of India.

In 2010, for ""Outstanding Achievement in Environment Management in the Chemical sector"", Orchid was conferred with the Silver Award by Greentech Foundation.

Orchid was awarded the ""Siemens Ecovatives-IBN Live Award 2010"" in recognition of our outstanding initiatives in Energy Management (Low Energy and Natural Resource Conservation).

In 2010, Orchid’s Alathur API facility received the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Certificate of Merit on Energy Efficiency by the Ministry of Power, Government of India.

Orchid’s endeavour in the area of energy conservation was recognised with the “Excellent Energy Efficient Unit” in the 9th Energy Efficiency Summit 2010 organised by the CII (Confederation of Indian Industries). This award was recently presented by Mr.Ajay Mathur, Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, and Government of India.

Orchid’s Aurangabad facility received the Dr.R J Rathi Award for Environment Pollution & Control in industries in Maharashtra for the year 2010 (constituted by Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce Industries & Agriculture, Pune)

Orchid's Alathur facility was awarded Certificate of Appreciation by the National Safety Council of India (Safety Awards - 2011) in recognition of its appreciable achievement in Occupational Safety & Health during the assessment period of three years from 2008-10.

In 2011, Orchid received the ""Green Tech Gold Safety Award"" by Greentech Foundation. The award was presented by Dr RK Srivastav, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Gov of India  and Mr Kamaleshwar Sharan, President, Greentech Foundation.

Orchid’s Alathur facility received the Greentech Safety Award 2010 (Silver award) in pharmaceutical sector for outstanding achievement in Safety Management given by Greentech Foundation.

Orchid was awarded the ""Certificate of Merit Award"" for 2010 by the CII for Excellence in Environment, Health and Safety.

Orchid Research Laboratories (the discovery subsidiary of Orchid) won the Partner of Choice Award for Contract Research - Collaborative Drug Discovery by Frost & Sullivan in April 2007.

The company also bagged Gold Award for Excellence and Business Prestige was awarded at the Quality Summit 2003, New York.