Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), a subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board and the largest veterinary biological company in India, is setting up a new project for production of human and veterinary vaccines and veterinary formulations in Hyderabad at a an investment of Rs 150 crore. The company also has plans to launch new vaccines for bovines, sheep and pets besides foraying into to cattle feed segment. It is also in process of expanding its number of veterinary centres and clinics across India.
Currently the company has three manufacturing units, one in Ooty and two in Hyderabad. In an interaction with Business Standard, IIL Head-AH Marketing, N S N Bhargav said, “We are setting up a new facility to cater to the growing demand of human & veterinary vaccines and veterinary formulations. The project will be built on a 50-acre site, in Karkapatla – Bio-Tech Phase-III, Genome Valley, Hyderabad.
The new project will enhance the production capacity to meet the growing market demand for both domestic and regulated markets. It will also help in adding new products to the existing ones and would be functional by next year. Costing nearly Rs 150 crore, it will involve setting up manufacturing plants for human rabies vaccine, Japanese encephalitis vaccine, human bio therapeutics and veterinary vaccines as well as veterinary formulations.”
IIL is the largest vaccine manufacturer and exporter in the country and caters to nearly 80 per cent of Foot and Mouth vaccine requirement. It has ambitious plans of launching new vaccines for bovines, sheep and pets. The company launched four new vaccines for the domestic market namely Pentavalent vaccines for humans as well as vaccines for Japanese encephalitis, brucellosis and recombinant tick vaccine in animals.
The other new vaccines under development in IIL are – chikungunya vaccine, HPV, hepatitis-A vaccine for humans and infectious bovine rhinotracheities for animals. In the last financial year, the turnover of the company was Rs 272 crore. Driven by the new vaccine launch, the company hopes for a 30-35 per cent rise in its turnover to Rs 400 crore in the FY’11.
Bhargav also mentioned the company had plans to increase the number of Raksha Veterinary centres- a string of veterinary health care centres started by IIL in Western UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat and AP on a pilot scale, which offers quality veterinary healthcare services at affordable cost to livestock owners. Nearly 200 such centres are currently in operation and it has plans to scale it up to 1,000 in 2-3 years.
Commenting on new vaccines, he added, “Brucellosis is affecting bovine population across the country, especially north India and has not received desired attention so far. Approximately 5 per cent of the animals in India (total cattle population in India is about 500 million) are affected by this gruesome disease.
So far as Punjab is concerned, 10 per cent of the cattle are affected by this disease ( 8 million cattle in Punjab). So, we have launched this vaccine.”
