In a major effort to expand its vaccine portfolio, the Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Limited, a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board has invested Rs 150 crore for a Greenfield project coming up on 50-acres at the Karkapatla Bio-Tech phase-III Genome Valley in Hyderabad.

The new project will augment the production capacity of vaccines for human and animal healthcare. The project will be completed in three phases.

The Rs 261 crore company is known for its rabies vaccine Abhayrab, which is its flagship brand generating Rs 102 crore, Abhay-Vac 3 for Measles Mumps Rubella and Elovac B are among the key products in the human health segment. Its animal healthcare range comprises 27 products, of which 10 are biologicals and the remaining are antibiotics, antihelminthics(worm expulsion drugs), NSAIDs and anti parasitics.

As part of its new growth areas, the company is expanding its offering. It will develop vaccines for human rabies and Japanese encephalitis besides Brucellosis for cattle and a range of nutraceutical formulations for animals. The recombinant range of animal vaccines will include Blue Tongue, Tick, Enterotoxaemia, canine parvovirus, to name a few. Besides, it is working to increase its products in the animal nutrition space to tackle the ‘area specific mineral deficiency’ with a range of calcium and cobalt supplements.

For the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, IIL teamed-up with the National Institute of Health, Taiwan for its development and clinical trials are expected to commence in the next few months in India.

In order to expand the reach of vaccines across the country, IIL launched ‘Abhay Clinics’ which are dedicated vaccine dispensing counters to reach the doctors and offer Abhayrab among others. From its current 300 clinics, there will be another 100 more will be added across the country taking the total to 400 during this fiscal. There is a huge growth opportunity in India for vaccines which is the future for the pharma industry. “Our objective is to offer efficacious and affordable vaccines to prevent and control diseases in animal and human population,” said KV Balasubramaniam, managing director, Indian Immunological Limited.

The current market for animal vaccines in the country is estimated to be Rs 450 crore and IIL is the largest player in the sector. Of this Rs 250 crore constitutes poultry care and the remaining is for cattle and companion animals. In the latter ILL holds the leadership status. In the human vaccine segment, ILL is ranked fourth after Serum Institute, Panacea and Shanta Biotech.

The global market for animal medicines is value at US$ 21 billion and has witnessed unsteady growth in the West primarily because of fall in use of drugs fearing the chemical residual which impacts animals.

There is also a stagnation in animal population at farms because efforts to increase food production. However, products for companion animals has been on the rise, said Balasubramaniam.

The animal health sector has witnessed a string of mergers and acquisitions including Pfizer buying Microteck, Vetoquinol taking over Wockhardt and GSK sell off to Virbac Animal Health India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Virbac SA, a leading European company. Global players pursue for high value low volume vaccines and Indian companies interests are in the high volume and low value drugs.

Going by the rising demand for quality and affordable vaccines, the growth drivers IIL is looking to cash in on the business development prospects with its new capacity and pipeline of products, added Balasubramaniam.