Generic injectable focused pharmaceutical company Gland Pharma will be investing ₹400 crore in Genome Valley, near Hyderabad, to include additional capabilities at its existing facility there to manufacture biologicals, biosimilar, antibodies and recombinant insulin.
The expanded facility will have employment generation potential for more than 500 qualified, skilled and semi-skilled people to be recruited mostly from nearby areas.
Gland Pharma had established its biopharmaceutical facility at Genome Valley in February 2022 with ₹300 crore investment for manufacturing vaccines, biologicals, biosimilar and antibodies. It had recruited 200 people for the facility. The expanded site is envisaged to meet national and international regulations that are to be followed in manufacturing of biological products. It will be built under the GMP (good manufacturing practices) guidelines for the respective product lines.
Monday’s announcement followed a meeting of Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao with Gland Pharma MD and CEO Srinivas Sadu. Senior government officials, including Industries Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and Telangana Lifesciences CEO Shakthi M Nagappan were present, the Minister’s office said in a release.
Booster shot
“Delighted Gland Pharma will be investing ₹400 crore in expanding footprint in Hyderabad and will create 500 more jobs in Telangana ... also excited expansion will be focussed on advanced areas like biologicals, biosimilar, antibodies and recombinant insulin, areas where the State is focussed on building capabilities and consolidating our leadership position. This expansion truly demonstrates the strength of life sciences ecosystem in the city and Genome Valley,” Mr. Rao said.
Genome Valley, which is India’s first organised cluster for life sciences research and development and clean manufacturing activities, is home to more than 200 companies with a scientific workforce of about 15,000 professionals. Marquee global names from Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia and Lonza have their facilities there. Genome Valley has world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of industrial/knowledge parks, special economic zones (SEZs), multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities, the Minister’s office said.
Mr. Sadu said Gland Pharma is happy to collaborate with Telangana government on the latter’s vision of making the State a hub for global pharmaceutical requirements by expanding its bio-CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation) facilities in Shamirpet. The company, in which China’s Fosun Pharma is a major shareholder, operates eight manufacturing facilities in India, with a finished formulation capacity of approximately 1,000 million units. These include four facilities with 28 production lines for finished formulations and four active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facilities, including Genome Valley facility for biopharmaceutical drug substance (DS).
