News Analysis India

Tag: Biocon Biologics

  • Biocon and Serum Institute come together with strategic alliance to increase vaccine access for developing countries

    By Express News Service

    Two leading biotech players, Bengaluru based Biocon Biologics Limited and Pune based Serum Institute Life Sciences Private Limited have come together with a strategic alliance in a bid to increase vaccines and antibody therapeutics access for developing countries, for infectious diseases including Covid-19, dengue and HIV among others.

    As part of the deal, the BBL has offered 15% stake to SILS at a post money valuation of $4.9 billion in exchange for committed access to 100 million doses of vaccines per annul for 15 years.

    Announcing this at a joint press meet held on Friday, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and SII chief executive Adar Poonawalla said, the partnership aims to complement the strengths and resources of the two leading players and make a significant impact on global healthcare through vaccines and biologics.

    “BBL will commercialise Serum institute’s vaccine portfolio including COVID 19 vaccines for global markets and this would also be an additional growth driving for BBL. Research and manufacturing infrastructure will also be leveraged by this partnership for various opportunities in infectious diseases, ” Shaw said.

    Speaking at the press meet, Poonawala said SII had to delay its plans to work on and produce monoclonal therapies for Covid due to the huge demand of Covishield vaccine production, and the new tie-up aims to address this. 

    More in the pipeline

    The duo stressed that the synergistic future oriented deal will help growth of both companies, as it will provide Biocon an opportunity to enter into the vaccine space, whereas Serum can leverage BBL’s expertise in areas like monoclonal antibodies (mABs), m-RNA technologies and biosimilars.

    Adding that there is more to the partnership than just the 100 million vaccines that has been talked about, Poonawala said that, “The opportunities are limitless and we will look at monoclonals and other therapeutics. Additional business partnerships and alliances in addition to the 100 million vaccines we have talked about will also be looked into,” Poonawala said.

    Biocon Biologics will also establish a vaccine research and development division to support the alliance in developing both vaccines and biologics for communicable diseases.

    Additionally, wherever possible, it will make available its cell culture and sterile fill and finish capacities for vaccine production under the alliance. 

    He also stressed that both the partners also wanted to make investments in strengthening the raw material chain, as many of these raw materials manufacturers are finding it hard to scale up and match the vaccine manufacturing supply.

    “We will make investment in raw material manufacturing as well — so that we are fully self-reliant,” Poonawala said, adding that these supply chains will be established in the country.

    Mazumdar-Shaw said the long term partnership will try to ensure that Indian drug manufacturers do not face supply chain disruptions in future. 

    Initial focus on COVID 

    Meanwhile Poonawala made it clear that the initial additional capacities will be focused on COVID vaccines for the obvious reason of demand to provide to not just India but other countries too.

    “Initially it would make sense that whatever firepower and additional capacity we can leverage from biocon biologics including the first 100 MN doses annually will be focused on COVID vaccines but there is a huge pipeline of vaccines for malaria, HPV etc, thereafter that will benefit from the partnership,” Poonawala explained.

    He added that Biocon has extensive marketing infrastructure in developed markets, an area Serum can explore to take its vaccines and other products to those markets through this alliance. At present most of Serum’s products are supplied across the world through public health agencies like WHO-UNICEF and other such agencies

  • Biocon Biologics partners with Adagio Therapeutics for Covid antibody treatment in India

    By Express News Service
    BENGALURU: A new treatment to both treat and prevent the Covid-19 infection, developed by Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon has got an exclusive license from US-based Adagio Therapeutics for its use in India and select markets.

    This antibody therapy targets the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses. 

    Announcing this in a statement from the Biocon Biologics said, “ADG20, a novel monoclonal antibody targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses, is in global clinical development by Adagio as a single agent for both the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, its variants, as well as future variants that may emerge.”

    Initial data indicate that ADG20 could provide both rapid and durable protection against COVID-19 for up to one year, Biocon Biologics said.

    With its potential to address resistant variants, including the Delta variant, and its ability to be administered easily as a single, intramuscular injection in the outpatient setting, ADG20 is uniquely poised to address the current need for an effective, safe and convenient therapy for COVID-19, it added.

    “We are very proud to partner with Adagio in our shared mission to provide affordable access to a best-in-class antibody therapy for people affected by SARS-CoV-2,” Biocon Biologics Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said.

    During the pandemic in India, over 50,000 patients benefited from its COVID-19 drugs that included Remdesevir, Itolizumab and Cytosorb, it added.

    Adagio plans to seek Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the US as early as the first quarter of 2022. Under the terms of the deal, Biocon Biologics will get access to the clinical and nonclinical data from Adagio’s EUA submission to the US Food and Drug Administration to seek approvals in the emerging markets, the statement said.