Cyrus Poonawala led Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII), world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally, has acquired Czech Republic based biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing firm Nanotherapeutics for 72 million Euro, making SII the largest injectable Polio vaccine manufacturer in the world.
Confirming the development, Adar Poonawala, CEO, SII told The Hindu, “This acquisition will add to SII group injectable Polio capacity, increasing it by 4 times to a total of 200 million doses by 2019. We will be investing another 45 million Euros in upgrading the facility.”
The company is also building a greenfield facility in Pune with investments of Rs 2000 crore to further consolidate it global positioning in the sector.
According to its website, Nanotherapeutics has manufacturing capabilities for biologic products that will provide the department of defence and US government with ability to rapidly respond to emerging disease threats and chemical, biologic, radiological and nuclear events.
The current acquisition by the company is the second one overseas since 2012 when it bought a plant in Holland.
SII, Pune is currently one of the largest manufacturers of MMR group of vaccines and Pentavalent group of vaccines in the world, present in 147 countries. With manpower of 5000 employees in SII, Pune, the company plans to add around 200 employees in the next 2-3 years in Czech Republic.
