Biocon acquires Pfizer RnD facility to boost biosimilars portfolio

Biocon Biologics has acquired Research and Development(RnD) capital assets from Pfizer Healthcare India Ltd.

New Delhi: Biopharmaceuticals company, today announced that its subsidiary, Biocon Biologics, has acquired Research and Development(RnD) capital assets for a 60,000 sq. ft state-of-the-art ‘bench to pilot scale’ Biologics research facility at TICEL Bio Park in Chennai, India.

Biocon Biologics has acquired these assets from Pfizer Healthcare India Ltd.

The facility will house an early-stage research and innovation centre including a pilot-scale RnD Unit, well-equipped with cell line development, drug substance process development from bench scale to a 400-litre scale bioreactors, drug product formulation laboratories and analytical RnD laboratories.

The facility is expected to be operational in a few months post qualification and will house over 250 scientists who will have access to state of the art RnD labs equipped with over 500 high- end process and analytical instrumentation.

The new facility provides Biocon Biologics, a significant time advantage in comparison to setting up a greenfield R&D project and will accelerate the global development of our biosimilars portfolio.

Currently, Biocon Biologics has a 200,000 sq. ft state of the art Research & Development Centre at Biocon Park, Bengaluru, India. The Company has a product pipeline of 28 molecules, including 11 with Mylan, few with Sandoz and rest on its own.

The financial details of the deal are confidential. TICEL Bio Park at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, is a hub for the biotech RnD industry in major domains such as medical biotechnology, nutraceuticals, agricultural biotechnology and bioinformatics and provides world-class infrastructure support.

Commenting on the same, Dr Christiane Hamacher, CEO, Biocon Biologics, said, “The high-end integrated R&D facility in Chennai will enable Biocon Biologics to expand its RnD capability and accelerate its journey towards meeting its strategic long-term goal of addressing the needs of millions of patients worldwide. This investment will allow us to fast-forward the development of our biosimilars from lab to pilot scale."

"R&D is at the core of what we do and I believe this facility will enable us to pursue breakthrough innovation in pursuit of providing affordable access to high-quality biosimilars and inclusive healthcare solutions aimed at transforming patient lives globally, ” he added.

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