Biological E to invest over Rs. 1800 crores in Hyderabad for vaccines manufacturing

Hyderabad: Cementing Hyderabad's position as "Vaccine Capital of the World", Biological E has announced their expansion plans for investment of more than INR 1800 crores and employment creation of more than 2500 people in their 3 facilities in Genome Valley. The expansion is primarily targeted to ramp up the manufacturing of vaccines along with generic Injectables and R&D.

The announcement was made after Minister KT Rama Rao's meeting with the leadership of Biological E Mahima Datla, Managing Director. Jayesh Ranjan IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Dept. and Shakthi M Nagappan, Director Lifesciences, Government of Telangana were also present during the meeting.

Hyderabad, which is regarded as the "vaccine capital of the world", accounts for 1/3rd of global vaccine production with a capacity of about 9 bn doses per annum. This investment from Biological E will enhance the capacity by 5 bn doses increasing the cumulative capacity to about 14 bn doses each year, further consolidating the leadership of Hyderabad in vaccines.

Investment will be focused on manufacturing of Janssen Covid vaccine, MR Vaccine, PCV Vaccine, Typhoid Vaccine, Covid Vaccine, Tetanus Toxide Ampoules, IPV Vaccine and Pertussis Vaccine, biological APIs and formulations, speciality Generic Injectables and R&D with a cumulative investment of INR 1801 crores and employment potential of 2518 people.

All of these activities will be located in Genome Valley, which is India's first organized cluster for Life Sciences R&D and Clean Manufacturing activities, with world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of Industrial / Knowledge Parks, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities. It is home to more than 200 companies with a scientific workforce of about 15,000 professionals including presence of the marquee global names like Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia, Lonza amongst many others.

Biological E. Limited (BE) commenced its operations in 1953 as a biological products company manufacturing liver extracts and anti-coagulants. It is the first private sector biological products company in India and the first pharmaceutical company in Southern India. Currently, BE has four strategic business units: Branded Formulations, Speciality Generic Injectables, Synthetic Biology and Vaccines and Biologics in Telangana with 6 manufacturing facilities and creating direct employment for more than 5000 people.

BE has secured funding from U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to the tune of $50 million to expand the company's capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Further, it has developed one of the indigenous vaccines for Covid-19 in the country - "Corbevax". The vaccine has also received a nod from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorisation for the 5-12-year age group.

Minister K.T Rama Rao said that "I'm delighted to announce the expansion plans of Biological E in Genome Valley. Hyderabad is already known as the "Vaccine Capital of the World" and this expansion further accelerates our strength to serve the world with live saving vaccines."

Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E has added that "I'm thankful to the government of Telangana, the vision of Honourable Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Minister K T Rama Rao for spearheading and continuing to facilitate in a way that enables us to take quick decisions to expand even during the pandemic times."