Biocon's facility for bio-pharma products

Biocon Biopharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Biocon, on Monday opened a new facility which will house manufacturing, laboratory and technical support facilities for bio-pharmaceuticals.

The facility, at the 'Biocon Park', Bommasandra Industrial Area on the outskirts of the city, has been built for Rs 100 crore. It is cGMP (current good manufacturing practices) compliant, and is designed to manufacture a range of novel and generic therapeutic products.

According to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director of Biocon, the new facility is initially working on the development of BIOMAb EGFR, a novel monoclonal antibody for treating solid tumors of epithelial origin such as head and neck cancer.

The facility is also designed to cater to contract manufacturing needs of global bio-pharma companies through large scale cell-culture fermentation for the treatment of cancer, auto-immune and metabolic diseases, she added.

The company's multi-disciplinary capabilities and growing expertise in clinical development have enabled rapid advances in the field of protein therapeutics. "We believe that such biotech products will provide quantum growth drivers for the company's future," she further added.

"The plant is designed with an in-built four-fold expansion capacity, keeping in mind Biocon Biopharmaceuticals' research pipeline and global market trends. This new facility provides immediate job opportunities to over a hundred scientific and technical personnel," said Arun Chandavarkar, president operations at Biocon.

Biocon Biopharmaceuticals was set up by Biocon in collaboration with CIMAB, representing the Centre of Molecular Immunology, Cuba.

The facility, according to Chandavarkar, is spread over 1.2 lakh square feet and comprises distinct modules for cell culture of monoclonal antibodies and other cell culture products.

It has a facility for packaging aseptic (free from living germs of disease, fermentation or putrefaction) formulations and also a quality control module, he added.