The brand was new, the ingredient was not: many drug makers had been buying it from Nitta Gelatin India for their brands.
On June 19, Gelixer CollagenPep, a medication for relieving joint pain, hit the retail market in Kerala without any fuss. The brand was new, the ingredient was not: many drug makers had been buying it from Nitta Gelatin India for their brands.
When Nitta Gelatin India was set up in 1975 as a venture between the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and Japan's Nitta Gelatin, its only goal was to make ossein, an ingredient of gelatin.
Drug makers need gelatin to make capsules. The venture flourished and began making gelatin in 1999, while continuing to export ossein to its Japanese partner. Last year, it introduced Chitosan, a product made from shrimp shields and aimed at cosmetics, pharma and pesticide industries. Making ossein from crushed bones spawns a by-product, di-calcium phosphate, which Nitta sells as poultry feed.