With the biotechnology industry in Gujarat about to spread its wings through proactive government initiatives and policies, Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (IBPL), India's first and only biopharmaceuticals company to receive European Union - good manufacturing practice (EU-GMP) certification for its manufacturing facility, is all set to cash in on the growth opportunities by targeting the products coming off in the years to come.
Compared to other players in the state, Intas is already ahead of the competition by grabbing regulatory approvals from Europe with its in-house expertise of developing its own products. Also, Intas is one of the very few companies with the expertise to manufacture quality biopharmaceutical products specialising in recombinant protein technology.
"Intas shall be targeting the products coming off patent and most blockbuster products in recent times coming off patent have been biotech products. Our research and development (R&D) pipeline also endorses the same view as we are currently working on products that are coming off patent in the years to come," said, Mani Iyer, executive director, Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.
"IBPL is spearheading the biopharmaceutical movement in Gujarat with speciality and expertise in conducting R&D, manufacturing and marketing of biotech drugs. The company was conceptualised by Dr Urmish Chudgar back in 2000, the time when no one could dare to think about recombinant protein technology in Gujarat. We launched our first product Neukine in 2004, which is a blockbuster drug and since then, we have focussed our efforts in bringing out one biotech product every year to keep up pace with the needs and requirements of biotechnology industry," he added.
In a major step, Intas has collaborated with well-known US university for development of transgenic products in order to tackle clotting disorders. "There is a major non-availability of medicines like Factor VIII and Factor IX especially in developed countries like India, which has been a major setback to us in our development. We hope this transgenic technology would provide major impetus to us and other developed nations by reducing the cost of treatment. Government of India, Department of Science & Technology has sanctioned certain soft financing for carrying on this research" said, Mani Iyer.
Recently Intas Biopharmaceuticals has acquired US-based biotechnology corporation, Biologics Process Development Inc (BPD). With the acquisition process underway, both companies are actively pursuing plans to work closely towards fulfilment of common business objectives in the area of contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS).
The development will facilitate and assist Intas Biopharmaceuticals' foray into US market especially to expand its CRAMS business. The two companies complement technical strengths of each other. Both the companies shall gain expertise from the synergies in technical areas like gene expression optimisation, medium optimisation cell culture/fermentation services, protein purification scale-up and analytical services thereby expanding the scope of CRAMS activities.
Asked about the company's plans to expand its business both in abroad and India, Mani Iyer Said "We would be improving our clinical practices to meet the best standards (e.g. pharmacovigilance meeting international standards) across the world. We would also enhance our analytical and biocharacterisation capabilities to meet highest standards and develop footprint in North American market through signing license deals for biogeneric products, developing high end research capabilities in North America and Europe.
The company would also consolidate its clone development activities initiated from across globe and streamline these activities for perspective of suitability and intellectual property to meet our objective of emerging as a global biogeneric player.
"We would also focus on research and manufacturing oriented services to our peers globally in their endeavour to come out with newer therapeutic proteins and newer forms of delivery and in return improve our revenue model and gather more experience in protein research and manufacturing management," noted Mani Iyer.