Actis Biologics Pvt Ltd (ABPL), the subsidiary of California-based Actis Biologics Inc, is raising funds in tune of USD 400 to 500 million for expansion activities especially in Malaysia and India.

The company is in talks with almost nine investor groups for funding its proposed biotech park, Biocity, in Melaka, Malaysia and the upcoming manufacturing plant in India. Talks are almost in final stage with two groups - a Zurich-based funding agency and the Middle-East-based Sharia Group - which are ready to induct USD 500 million and USD 250 million respectively, according to P N Venugopalan, president, ABPL.

In India, the company will induct the fund to set up a pilot plant for manufacturing its developed products, to start with VFF2. VFF2, the yeast-mammalian cell culture technology currently under development stage with two clones prepared for streptokinase and growth hormones, is expected to increase the production of protein eight times from the normal rate by increasing body mass of the particular cell and thus enable the biotech drug companies to bring down the cost of dosage production.

The technology will reduce the related cost of manufacture of several biosimilar molecules up to 20 per cent, claims Actis. The company will set up the pilot manufacturing plant in India with an investment of around Rs 8 crore and will commercialise the product in the beginning of next financial year, he informed.

The company has to raise USD 250 million to invest in Malaysia, USD 100 million in India and USD 50 million in US. The Malaysian government has already allotted 270 acres of land for Biocity in Melaka. Besides, Actis Biologics Malaysia has plans to expand its operations in the country through its subsidiaries - Telesto Diagnostics, a CAD based technology for treatment of breast cancer, Kohinoor Biotech, a company to manage the business of its prospective colorectal cancer technology Angiozyme and Topaz Life Sciences, which will work on its Vascular Fusion Factor 2 (VFF2) technology targeting select bio-generics.

"Our plans in Malaysia would help us to put a strong hold in Middle-East. We have applied for the prestigious Bio-Nexus status with the Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation," said Venugopalan.

The company has already put up the basic facilities for the three subsidiaries in Malaysia in the new building covering an area of 30,000 sq ft and activities of another new subsidiary, Co-genesis to manufacture the patented spacer for asthmatic and bronchial patients will be initiated within a month or two. Last year, the company acquired the spacer technology for metered dose inhalers (MDI) from the US-based CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC).

Actis Biologics, at present has a pipeline of six technologies validated by various firms for development. The pipeline consists of Angiozyme, VFF2, MSP 36 (memory secrete protein developed with the support of Department of Biotechnology), Telesto, the asthmatic product to be developed under Co-genesis and Liv-1 (a platform technology based on Ligand Linker Drug Delivery to reduce toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents in liver).