HLL Lifecare Ltd, a mini-ratna public sector undertaking, has floated a wholly-owned subsidiary, HLL Biotech Ltd, to execute the Rs.594-crore Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) project in Tamil Nadu that was approved by the Cabinet last week.
The first phase of the IVC, which will come up at Chengalpattu, will be completed within 36 months.
With an annual capacity of 585 million doses, it will manufacture pentavalent combination (DPT plus Hep B plus Hib), BCG, measles, Hepatitis B, Human Rabies, Hib and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccines in the first phase.
Rs.594 crore project
“The total project cost of IVC is Rs.594 crore, of which Rs.28 crore has been released. We have also started onsite preliminary works on the 100 acres,” HLL chairman and managing director M. Ayyappan said in a statement here on Monday. In the first phase, IVC will have the capacity to produce 100 million doses each of pentavalent, measles, Hib, and BCG vaccines. It will also have capacity for 140 million doses of Hep B, 20 million doses of human rabies and 25 million doses of JE vaccines.
First of its kind
The state-of-the-art WHO-pre-qualified facility, the first of its kind in the public sector, will also have the capacity to manufacture futuristic Meningococcal, rotaviral, dengue and pneumococcal vaccines in its multi-bacterial and multi-viral facilities to meet any epidemic or pandemic situations, Mr. Ayyappan pointed out.
Market leader
The Thiruvananthapuram-based HLL, formerly Hindustan Latex Ltd, is the market leader in contraceptives with 70 per cent share and ranks amongst the top manufacturers globally.
HLL has already completed revamping of the public sector vaccine manufacturing unit, Central Research Institute (CRI), at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh.
The Central government has also entrusted HLL with the task of revamping Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccine Laboratory, Guindy, and Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor, both in Tamil Nadu, and allotted Rs.213 crore.
HLL, which has set a target of becoming Rs.10,000-crore company by 2020, also runs hospital chains, diagnostic clinics, and hospital management as well as MRI centres across India as part of a total healthcare public sector undertaking.
