Fire incident forces Aurobindo arm Lyfius to temporarily pause Pen-G production at Kakinada plant

HYDERABAD: In a setback for Aurobindo Pharma , the company has temporarily paused production at its subsidiary, Lyfius Pharma Pvt Ltd’s Penicillin-G manufacturing plant at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh after a fire broke out at the facility on Sunday night.

“The incident resulted in damage to certain ancillary equipment, with no impact to the core manufacturing infrastructure. Importantly there were no injuries reported,” Aurobindo Pharma said in a regulatory filing on Monday evening.

“As a temporary measure and to facilitate necessary equipment replacements, operations at the plant will be temporarily paused for an estimated period for 20 to 25 days. A thorough assessment of the damage is currently underway,” the company said.

However, Aurobindo Pharma said the incident is not expected to have any material impact on the operations or financials of the group as the facility is fully insured.

The fire broke out at around 10pm on April 27, 2025, in the vicinity of the coal crusher area of the Pen-G facility. “The fire incident took place due to self-ignition of coal. We are in the process of ascertaining the exact reasons for the same,” the company said.

The 15,000 metric tonnes per annum capacity plant was set up at an investment of Rs 2,500 crore under the Indian govt’s production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for key starting materials, drug intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

The plant, which makes Pen-G for the domestic and exports market, became operational in April 2024 but was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually in October 2024 end.