As Strides Arcolab pushes its profitable sterile injectable subsidiary, Agila Specialties Private Limited and Agila Specialties Asia Pte. Limited, Singapore into the Mylan bandwagon, the company is now chalking out its foray into the biologics space.
The company will carry on to develop its pharma-biotech business and front-end businesses in India and Africa. It will be on an aggressive mode to build up a fully integrated biotech business which will be fully funded post the transaction of the Mylan deal.
“Since our definitive agreement with Mylan did not include the transaction of Agila Biotech division, we have planned investments to set-up a next-generation biologics facility in Johor, Malaysia. In addition, we will build a 15,000 sq. ft. advanced R&D facility in Bengaluru,” said the company in its presentation to analysts.
Biologics represent the fastest growing market segment in pharma accounting for six out of top ten selling global drugs, with patents on first generation biologics expiring by 2020. The biologics facility in Johor, Malaysia will be an advanced end-to-end multi-product facility for the production of recombinant therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from drug substance to drug product in vials, pre-filled syringes and lyophilised products. The project is expected to come on-stream by end-2014, with significant capacity already advance booked for partner operations, according to the company.
The R&D facility in Bengaluru would be handling high-end research activities, catering to an internal pipeline as well as partnering activities.
The company would look to develop an internal pipeline of biosimilars, utilizing the latest bacterial and mammalian expression systems.
The company which stands solid on its generics platform will continue to be focused on soft gelatin and immunosuppressants for the US and European markets. “We have strong R&D capabilities with US FDA approved manufacturing infrastructure along with an exhaustive pipeline focused on products with high entry barriers to drive growth,” said the company.
Coming to its African business, Strides will only look to further augment its sales and marketing of the branded generics and over-the-counter medicines across Central and Sub-Saharan Africa. The growth here will be driven by launch of new products, expansion into new markets, and establishing local manufacturing, said the company.
It will continue to bolster its domestic business with niche branded pharmaceutical products in fast growing therapeutic segments, said the company.