Our Special Correspondent

The city-based Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) on Monday announced that the company is set to invest around Rs 700 Crores to set up a new animal vaccine manufacturing facility in Genome Valley, here - the “Vaccine Hub of the World.”  This is to meet the vaccine security of the nation against economically important diseases such as ‘Foot and Mouth disease’ (FMD) and other emerging diseases, according to the company sources.

The facility will create total employment for around 750 people.

The IIL Managing Director, Dr. K. Anand Kumar and other members of the Executive Leadership team, including Senior Vice Presidents Mukul Gaur and NSN Bhargav met the state Minister KT Rama Rao and briefed him on the company’s plans. Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Jayesh Ranjan and state Director (Pharma & Lifesciences), Shakthi M Nagappan was also present during the meeting.

Responding to the delegation, the Minister Rama Rao said, “I’m delighted that Indian Immunologicals will be setting up another Greenfield facility in Genome Valley here, which is already regarded as the “Vaccine Capital of the World” and this expansion further advances our contribution in terms of global health, not just for humans but also for animals”.

Dr. Anand Kumar, in turn promised that “IIL is on an aggressive growth path and this third vaccine facility in city will ensure self-sufficiency for our nation in the field of vaccines and thereby saving the exchequer and farmers several thousands of crores”.

In fact, the IIL is a subsidiary National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and one of the largest manufacturers of FMD vaccine in the world and is the leading supplier of FMD vaccine to the Union government’s National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP). It is also investing in a new green-field project for the establishment of a Veterinary Vaccine Facility for manufacturing of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine and other animal vaccines.

The facility is intended to be a state-of-art fully integrated biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) for Drug substance (DS) production and respective fill-finish.

The company is intended its new facility, in Genome Valley Phase 3, will add another 300 million doses/annum of FMD vaccines to its existing capacity. The existing facility in Gachibowli already has a capacity of 300 million doses. Production is scheduled to commence in the 3rd year. IIL is a One Health company and the market leader in veterinary and human biologicals in India. It manufactures over 150+ products.

All of these activities will be located in Genome Valley, which is India’s first organized cluster for Life Sciences R&D and Clean Manufacturing activities, with world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of Industrial / Knowledge Parks, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities. It is home to more than 200 companies with a scientific workforce of about 15,000 professionals including presence of the marquee global names like Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia, and Lonza amongst many others including other vaccines manufacturers like Bharat Biotech, Biological E, etc.