The lion's share of the newinvestment will be spent on increasing production of cancer treatments at its Mulgrave factory in Melbourne. Meanwhile, production capacity at the firm's Aguadilla facility in Puerto Rico, which makes injectable pharmaceuticals, will be doubled.

Mayne refocused its activities on the generic cancer drugs sector after selling its hospital and transport divisions in the past year. In October, the company reached an agreement with Xanodyne Pharmacal for the acquisition of two injectable oncology products, methotrexate sodium and leucovorin calcium, in the US market. And earlier this year the firm paid $85 million (€69m) to acquire rights to a paclitaxel business developed by NaPro Biotherapeutics.

The company has focused on acquiring new products in the injectable generics sector, as this is showing stronger growth at present than oral generics. Meanwhile, cancer drugs are expected to be the strongest-growing segment of the entire generics market until 2006, according to Mayne.