Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), which recently emerged as the world’s largest manufacturer of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine, has readied plans for setting up a Rs 300-crore facility, which according to the company, will serve as “expansion or for developing a new product”.
The proposed “big project” at Puducherry, for which IIL had already “got 30 acres of land”, is also part of the government’s plan to have enough domestic capacity for meeting an estimated demand of 600 million doses of animal vaccine in the country in the next 3-4 years, an IIL official said.
IIL said sales of FMD vaccine in the country stood at 270 million doses in the last fiscal, while this year it would be 320 million doses. IIL was created by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under the Operation Flood programme with the objective of improving livestock health.
On the options being considered for meeting the funding needs, NDDB chairman T Nanda Kumar said, “as of now, we are keen on taking loan. If equity comes, NDDB will invest.”
He said IIL first needed to complete the Karakapatla facility near here, where it is developing vaccines for combating chikungunya and Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV), before taking up the next project.
“It is kept as an insurance for the future. We are readying ourselves for a contingency of either an expansion or developing a new product if in case a new strain appears in the animal gene in the next 2-3 years,” said Kumar on the planned new facility.
Speaking to mediapersons here today on the launch of vaccine for the control of bluetongue disease among sheep, goats and cattle, he said the veterinary care infrastructure in the country was “in poor condition” and the state governments should intervene more to improve services to farmers.
He said IIL would continue to invest in developing new vaccines and presently research was going on in at least dozen new formulations.
Meanwhile, chief general manager of IIL, GS Reddy, said the bluetongue disease was quite prevalent in south India, covering Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, affecting over 40 million sheep and 50 million goat population.
He said the company had the necessary infrastructure at its facilities to produce 200 million doses of the bluetongue disease vaccine every year.
The product is intended to serve the government’s programme aimed at controlling the spread of the disease by marketing the vaccine at Rs 10 a unit.
The company is also open to marketing it to other South Asian countries and some in Africa. Internationally, the vaccine is available at more than twice the local price.
