Mumbai: The Serum Institute of India (SII) is partnering with Bengaluru's Biocon Biologies Limited (BBL) to produce Covishield vaccines for India in its fight against the deadly coronavirus.
"The alliance between Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS) and Biocon Biologics will allow the companies to make a meaningful impact in fighting infectious diseases, Biocon and Biocon Biologics Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said on Friday.
"Through the strategic alliance between @BioconBiologics and Serum Institue Life Sciences, we hope to strengthen India's position as a global vaccine and biologics manufacturing powerhouse," Poonawalla commented.
"Under the terms of the agreement, BBL will offer approximately 15% stake to SILS, at a post-money valuation of $4.9 billion, for which it will get committed access to a 100 million doses of vaccines per annum for 15 years, primarily from SILS’s upcoming vaccine facility in Pune with commercialization rights of the SILS vaccine portfolio (including COVID-19 vaccines) for global markets," Biocon said in a statement.
Additionally, the strategic partnership will also work towards developing antibodies targeting and eliminating infectious diseases like dengue, HIV, etc. A Service Legal Agreement (SLA) will be drawn for the manufacturing and distribution of the antibodies between the two companies.
"Our shared vision of building large-scale businesses having global impact makes it a unique and synergistic value creation opportunity," Shaw said.
The merger of the two of the biggest Indian pharmaceutical companies will focus on improving global healthcare. Biocon Biologics announced a manufacturing and commercialization partnership in select emerging markets with Boston-based Adagio Therapeutics Inc. for ADG20, a novel COVID-19 antibody therapy.
Additionally, Biocon Biologics will also establish, at its cost, a vaccine R&D division to support the strategic alliance in developing both vaccines and biologics for communicable diseases.
"We look forward to complementing each other’s capabilities and capacities in vaccines and biologics, with the objective of addressing inequitable access both in emerging and developed markets for life-saving vaccines and biologics,” Poonawalla commented.
