Ashland, a specialty pharmaceutical excipients company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, has broken ground on a tablet coatings manufacturing facility in Ambernath, Maharashtra, India, marking the company’s first such facility in South Asia and its largest manufacturing investment in India to date.

The facility will manufacture Ashland’s aquarius brand tablet coating systems for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical customers across India and the Asia-Pacific region, according to the announcement. The company currently manufactures tablet coatings at facilities in the United States, China, and Brazil, the company said.

The Ambernath site is located near Mumbai with proximity to pharmaceutical manufacturing clusters in Pune, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. The aquarius portfolio includes immediate-release, enteric, sustained-release, barrier, and titanium dioxide-free coating systems.

Alessandra Faccin Assis, senior vice president and general manager of life sciences and intermediates at Ashland, said in a statement the India facility reflects a strategic decision to localize manufacturing closer to the markets the company serves, strengthening supply chain resilience and quality consistency across global operations.

Saju Joseph, general manager of life sciences for Asia-Pacific at Ashland, added that the decision to establish the plant in India is anchored in strong infrastructure, a skilled talent base, and proximity to key customer centers, and is intended to deliver shorter lead times and localized technical support for customers across India and South Asia.