Bharat Biotech in Rs 70 crore capacity expansion

Gears up to meet the demand for anti-rabies vaccine

Bharat Biotech International (BBI), a city-based manufacturer of vaccines and biotherapeutics, has embarked on a Rs 70-crore capacity expansion plan to meet the growing demand for its anti-rabies vaccine, Indirab.

The company, which has sold 10 million doses of Indirab in the past three years, is expecting to sell an additional 10 million doses in the next 18 months and add Rs 200 crore to the revenues. The global market for anti-rabies vaccine is estimated at over 50 million doses, annually.

The construction work for capacity expansion has already commenced and would be completed by January next year, BBI chairman and managing director, Krishna Ella, told Business Standard on Tuesday.

He said that the sales of Indirab were expected to soar further with the increase in demand for the vaccine from public health organisations in the domestic market and in over 30 countries. Following the expansion programme, the production capacity of Indirab would increase from the current 6 million doses to 8 million doses a year.

“We will be the largest producer of anti-rabies vaccine in the world,” Ella said, adding BBI's capacity to produce anti-rabies vaccine would exceed that of French vaccines producer Sanofi Pasteur, which has an annual capacity to produce 6 million doses.

According to Ella, BBI’s vaccine manufacturing methods are best suited to meet the growing demand for novel, cost-effective vaccines. “We believe that our third generation rabies Vero cell-based vaccine produced using chromatographically purified manufacturing process offers not just lower costs but also a highly purified vaccine with minimal side effects,” he added.

BBI, which posted a turnover of 260 crore last year, is also gearing up to produce anti-swine flu (AH1N1) vaccine. The capacity enhancement is also for production of this vaccine.