Intas setting up plasma fractionation facility

Celestial Biological, a subsidiary of Intas Biopharmaceuticals Limited, is in the process of setting up the country's first plasma fractionation facility near Ahmedabad.

The company would invest Rs 100-120 crore over the next two years and has begun the spadework on the seven acre land it has acquired at Matoda.

Initially, the manufacturing unit will have an installed capacity to fractionate 150,000 litres per annum of plasma. The company aims to scale this up to 300,000 litres per annum. Celestial Biologicals has joined hands with a chain of blood banks along with Prathama, an NGO, to start the facility.

The unit will include dedicated collection, testing and storage facilities along with other ancillary utilities.

"Plasma fractionation units are popular in the west. Our facility will be tailor-made to suit the Indian conditions. The laboratory facility has already been set up. Implementation of our own plasma fractionation facilities would enable Celestial to leverage its inherent strengths in the areas of biotechnology and transfusion medicine and research," said Ranjit Ajmani, chief scientific officer, Celestial Biologicals Ltd.

The unit will also enable expansion of its product range by extracting other plasma proteins from source plasma, including Alubumin, Immunoglobulin, Factor VIII, Factor IX, once parameters such as yields, fractionation charges, market demand and pricing are established for these products.

Celestial is actively engaged in marketing of plasma proteins "� Albumin and IVIG "� under the brand 'Albucel' and 'Globucel' in India. Albumin continues to be the main product of blood plasma fractionation industry.

Besides, the company is in talks with European and North American companies to acquire the plasma fractionation technology, Ajmani added.

Celestial has also entered into a contractual arrangement with South Korea-based plasma fractionators for fractionation of plasma.

The company has obtained all the requisite regulatory clearances in this regard, and has, till date, shipped more than 18,000 litres of plasma to South Korea for fractionation.

Plasma is fractionated into a number of blood products, including albumin, gamma globulins, blood-typing sera, clotting factors for people with haemophilia, etc.

The plasma fractionation process starts with recruitment and screening of blood donors. The screening process includes the review of the donor's medical history, health practices and a comprehensive physical examination.

The collection centres strive to build a donor base as they can save time in the screening process on the repeat donors, an official said.

GVFL has less than five per cent stake in Celestial Biologicals.