Biocon's Syngene in silent period but lays plans for API plant in India
Syngene International is a subsidiary of drugmaker Biocon and offers contract development and manufacturing services to both customers in its home country India, and international biopharma firms.
In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the firm announced it is “in the process of acquiring approximately 40 acres of land on leasehold basis in the multi-product Special Economic Zone [SEZ],” with the intention of “setting up commercial scale facilities for manufacture of novel Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Advanced Intermediates and Agro Chemicals for Syngene’s clients.”
As well as small molecule APIs, the CDMO produces biologics for its clients and is one of just a handful of Indian drugmakers which produce such products for Western biopharma companies. The firm also offers development services and last year announced a five-year extension of its collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The planned facility is located in Mangalore, Karnataka on the West coast of India. The announcement comes on the back of Biocon plans to build a biomanufacturing facility on the opposite side of India, at Pharma-City SEZ in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh.
SEZs offer businesses a number of incentives. The Mangalore site offers exemptions from industrial licensing norms including excise duty, purchase, service and sales tax.
IPO plans
This publication contacted parent company Biocon for more information, but spokesperson Seema Ahuja said the firm is in a silent period and cannot offer additional information.
Biocon is looking to list Syngene – India’s largest and Asia’s second-largest research services company – by the end of fiscal year 2015 and said in January it was hoping to sell up to 15% of its stake in the firm through an IPO.
In related news, Syngene’s Director, Peter Bains, has been appointed CEO of the subsidiary.
