Biological E to amp up vaccine production with Rs 1,800-crore investment

As India cements Hyderabad’s status as the “Vaccine Capital of the World,” Biological E has revealed vaccine production expansion plans worth more than Rs 1,800 crore.

More than 2,500 individuals in Genome Valley will gain employment as a result of this. The expansion is largely intended to increase vaccine manufacturing, as well as generic injectables and R&D.

Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao made the announcement during a meeting with Biological E Managing Director Mahima Datla.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary for Industries, and Shakthi M Nagappan, Director of Telangana Lifesciences, were also present.

Rao said that “I am 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 life-saving vaccines.”

Managing Director, Biological E, Datla also added, “I am thankful to the government of Telangana, the vision of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and 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.”

With a capacity of around 9 billion doses per year, Hyderabad city accounts for one-third of worldwide vaccine manufacturing. Biological E’s investment will increase capacity by 5 billion doses per year, bringing the total capacity to around 14 billion doses per year.

The investment will be focused on the 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, specialty Generic Injectables, and R&D, with a total investment of Rs 1,801 crore and the potential employment of 2,518 people.

All of these activities will take place in Genome Valley, India’s first organised cluster for Life Sciences R&D and Clean Manufacturing activities, which will be equipped with world-class infrastructure in the form of industrial/knowledge parks, special economic zones (SEZs), multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories, and incubation facilities.

It is home to over 200 enterprises with a scientific workforce of around 15,000 employees, including prominent worldwide brands like as Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia, and Lonza, among many more.

Biological E. Limited (BE) was founded in 1953 as a biological products firm producing liver extracts and anticoagulants.

It is India’s first private sector biological products firm and the region’s first pharmaceutical enterprise.

BE now has four strategic business areas in Telangana: Branded Formulations, Speciality Generic Injectables, Synthetic Biology and Vaccines and Biologics, with six production sites and around 5,000 direct jobs.

BE has received USD 50 million in financing from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to enhance its capacity to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Furthermore, it has created “Corbevax,” one of the country’s indigenous vaccinations for Covid-19.

The vaccine has also been approved for emergency use by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for children aged 5 to 12.