Company Watch

Venkateshwara Hatcheries to start human biopharma activity

Usha Sharma - Mumbai

The Pune- based Venkateshwara Hatcheries (VH) will start a fully integrated human biopharmacetuical manufacturing activity by setting up a new venture, Uttara Biosciences (Uttara). It will cover the entire gamut of biopharma activities both in the preventive and high-end therapeutic segments.

Giving more details, Arnab Banerjee, Head, Sales and Marketing, Uttara Biosciences, said, "Initially, we have invested Rs 5 crore for installing a vaccine filling line at Pune but the company has planned to invest Rs 100 crore over the next five-six years. Overall, this investment will include machinery, manpower, physical structure etc. At this moment we are consulting with Korean and Latin American companies for vaccine segment. We are also carrying out consultation for therapeutic segments in domestic as well in South America, China and Korea for technology transfer, strategic alliance and co-marketing agreement etc.

The company will introduce its oncology division-Fleuron which is expected to begin operations by end of August. For the fiscal 2009-10, it plans to introduce products in the nephrology therapeutic segment in the domestic market. By the end of financial year 2010-11 company plans to have a strong presence in the infertility and anti-HIV therapeutic segments as well.

The company's oncology division is planning to launch around 10 products during its first year, for treatment of breast cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, brain tumour, pancreatic cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, cancer of the hypopharynx and blood cancers. Uttara will be engaged in third-party/loan licensing arrangements with manufacturing partners for the formulation of their oncology products in the initial years. The products will be commercialised under their registered brand names on a pan-India scale. The company is in the process of registering its products in the market of South Asian countries, Romania, CIS and Latin America.

Venkatesh Rao, MD, Uttara, affirms, "Uttara is committed to scaling new heights and creating new dimensions in the biopharma value chain by supporting people around the world to live better and live longer."

"The oncology market in India is estimated at Rs 800 crore and is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually. However, the market is dominated by seven to eight players who have been in the field for over 10 to 15 years and collectively contribute to 70-75 percent of the present oncology market with an average gross turnover of around Rs 70 crore. As a new entrant, the first couple of years will be quite challenging for us with the market being hugely cluttered with continuous downward pressure on prices. However, with our excellent product mix and positioning strategies, we are confident of garnering a significant market share in the next five years. We are poised to carving out the best strategic alliances with several overseas companies towards technology transfer, co-development, contract manufacturing, co-marketing, etc. in realising the same in the shortest possible span," Banerjee says.

So far, in other plans, which are at various stages of execution, Rao confirms that Uttara is in advanced stages of negotiations with a few MNCs for procurement of vaccines and other innovative products. Opportunities are also being explored and pursued in the therapeutic segments of nephrology, infertility and anti-HIV. Summing up Rao states, "We are at a very crucial phase of our business diversification process. We would like to be both measured and aggressive in our approach so that our initiatives result in a win-win situation for all stakeholders besides leading us to our cherished goal of health for all."

u.sharma@expressindia.com