The Bangalore-based leading life sciences company Avesthagen Ltd will soon set up a new biosimilar product manufacturing facility in Bangalore at an investment of Rs 200 crore. For this phase I of its expansion programmes, the company has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Cipla for manufacturing monoclonal antibodies biosimilar (MAbs) product. The new facility is likely to go on stream in the first quarter of next financial year.

The company is building its new premises, which will include additional facilities, another cGMP unit for pilot and commercial scale manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, P3 labs for research on emerging pathogens, pilot scale plant extraction facilities as well as facilities for animal trials. Initially, the plant capacity will be 200 litres and the same will go up to 2500 litres within next 15-18 months.

It has established its world class, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities in Bangalore that include general lab space, clean room, a radio isotope lab, a high throughput sequencing and genotyping facilities, a bio safety level P2 green house space for transgenic plant experiments and trials, as well as, through one of its partners, access to irrigated land for field trials. At present it has overall strength of 600 employees.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder, chairman and managing director, said, "We have signed a 50-50 per cent joint venture agreement with Cipla Ltd for developing new biosimilar products. As per the agreement we will be developing a number of fusion proteins and biosimilar products, but the primary research work will be carried out by Avesthagen. At present we have 11 different new biosimilar products for cancer and autoimmune disorder therapeutic segment. Out of these, we are giving major focus on our two products. We are expecting to launch one biosimilar product in the domestic market by the end of next year".

The company has four strategic business units viz., biopharmaceuticals, bionutrition, bioagriculture and science & innovation. Its partners include top 10 global companies in each of its fields of research.

"We are planning to enter into capital market in the second quarter of next fiscal year. We have already received better response from our clients and we are aggressively working to cater to the rising demand. We are stepping up our presence in the domestic market and planning to set up additional facility in Hyderabad", Patell said.