On November 4, 1958, the company was incorporated under the name Merck Sharp & Dhome (India) Pvt. Ltd., with Merck & Co. Inc. of the United States holding 60 percent of the capital and Tata Sons, Ltd. being the principal Indian shareholder. The company's primary objective is the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company was founded with the financial and technical assistance of Merck & Co., Inc. in the United States. The company had established a small but well-equipped manufacturing facility in Tardeo, Mumbai. On June 30, 1959, the company's name was changed to Merck Sharp & Dhome India Pvt. Ltd. Under section 43-A of the Companies Act, the company was presumed to be a public limited company on March 28, 1961, and the word private was removed. The company's name was changed to Merind, Ltd. effective December 17, 1984. In 1964, the plant at Tardeo, Mumbai, was relocated to Bhandup, Mumbai, and expanded to include manufacturing equipment for chemical and pharmaceutical products. Antibiotics, corticosteroids, antihypertensives, antihistamines, and other pharmaceuticals were produced by the plant. Over time, new products were introduced. Since 1964, the Company has also produced vitamin B-12 at the initial stage. In 1978, Merck & Co. Inc. U.S.A. and its nominees held 10,800,000 of the total shares issued to that point. In 1980, The Company submitted an application for an industrial licence to produce 220 million tablets per year of Moduretic, a new antihypertensive agent. Additionally, a request was made to increase the annual capacity of Vitamin B-12 from 144 kilogrammes to 250 kilogrammes. In 1985, Merci & Co. Inc. USA offered for sale 3,600,000 equity shares of the company, each worth Rs.10, at a premium of Rs.3 per share. 7200 of these shares were reserved for preferential sale to the company's business partners. The remaining 3,522,800 shares and any unsold portion of the reserved quota were made available to the public. The purpose of the share offering was to reduce foreign ownership from 60 percent to 40 percent. The purpose of the public offering in India was to enable the Company to list its shares on the Mumbai Stock Exchange. In 1986, the Merivet division opened a new front for animal health products. With a few shipments to Italy, exports of bulk drugs and formulations got off to a modest start. The company has acquired a 39-acre plot of land for future expansion in bulk drugs and formulations. In accordance with the government's locational policy, the land was acquired in Narsapur, a designated backward area in Andhra Pradesh. In addition, approval was granted for the production of two new formulations at the Bhandup plant. In 1987, the company introduced 18 new formulations for livestock and poultry, as well as Modact and libotryp, two new pharmaceutical formulations. The approvals required for the establishment of an R&D facility in Bhandup have been obtained. The pharmaceutical division introduced two new products: brich and Meriflox. A fermentation development laboratory with pilot fermenters and computerised process monitoring and control systems was established. The analytical facilities of the quality control division were modernised through the acquisition of a microprocessor-controlled spectrophotometer and other analytical equipment.