The foundation stone for the facility was laid by state minister for major industries, sugar, commerce and export promotion J Geeta Reddy on Friday.

“The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has allotted 10 acres to the company in the phase III of Genome Valley biotech park on the city outskirts, and we expect to start commercial production in 18 to 24 months from now,” DK Dey, general manager (biotechnology), Globion India, said.

The facility will have a capacity of 5,000 million doses per year and produce multiple vaccines for dreadful poultry diseases including marex, infectious bronchitis (IB) and infectious bursal disease (IBD). The company would spend Rs 6-8 crore on the R&D of these products.

“These diseases, which were not present or insignificant a few decades ago, have gained prominence in control measures. However, import of vaccines is always uncertain due to bird flu situation in Asia, Europe and the US. Against this backdrop, Suguna felt it was essential to start vaccine manufacturing to cater to the needs of the poultry farmers across the country and ensure import substitution,” Dey said.

Source: Business Standard