Shreya Biotech, a flagship company of the Shreya Group is setting up a new biotechnology manufacturing facility in an area of 15 acres at Hinjewadi Biotech Park, Pune for the production of human insulin and hepatitis-B vaccine. The company is a joint venture between Shreya Life Sciences and Singapore based biotechnology company, SciGen. The company is investing about US$30 million in the project. The company is expecting the production to begin by January 2005.
The multi-product plant at Pune will have two lines- a bacterial cell fermentation line and a mammalian cell fermentation line. The bacterial cell line will manufacture human insulin based on e-coli, while, mammalian cell line will manufacture interferon, hepatitis -B and human growth hormone.
The human insulin, which is slated for launch during the next calendar year, would be in a painless injectible form with novel drug delivery system, sources informed Pharmabiz. The prices of recombinant human insulin in the regulated market are about $ 8-9, while prices in India are roughly about $ 3.
Globally, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Aventis control the global market for human recombinant insulin valued at over $ 3 billion. The Indian market is valued over Rs. 250 crore and Wockhardt has also entered into the segment recently.
It is significant to note that SciGen has executed contract manufacturing agreements during July 2003 with Shreya Biotech for a range of SciGen's biotech derivative products. The agreement is to consolidate the commercial strength of SciGen's entry into the Indian market by providing reliable, cost effective manufacturing facilities to support SciGen's supply in India and the rest of the Asia Pacific region.
SciGen has earlier executed commercialization agreements with Shreya and Ranbaxy to market, sell and distribute SciGen's recombinant human insulin (SciLin) in India. The agreements require both companies exclusively to sell SciLin and no other recombinant human insulin during the 10 year term of the agreement. The commercialization agreements contain minimum provisions of US$ 1.8 million over the three years following registration. Shreya will also market and sell Sci-B-Vac (Hepatitis B Vaccine) and SciTropin (Human Growth Hormone) through their sales force.
Admitting that the hepatitis-B market was already crowded in the country with margins down, Amitava Sengupta, a senior official in the group, said, the company still finds significant potential for the product. Shreya is to concentrate on areas such as contract research, manufacturing of the recombinant products in the future.