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Our Bureau

Dholka (Ahmedabad), July 10 Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Thursday announced a joint venture with US-based vaccine company Novavax Inc to, among other things, introduce in India a vaccine against swine flu.

The joint venture – CPL Biologicals Pvt Ltd – will be started with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore and will try to bring the vaccine, which is at an advanced stage of development in the US, to India in 2009-10.

Looking at the global spread of swine flu and the WHO declaring the flu a pandemic (H1N1 influenza), the joint venture could potentially market some 50 million doses of the vaccine annually in India.

At Rs 1,000 a shot, the market size could be Rs 5,000 crore in the country, said Mr Rahul Singhvi, President and CEO, Novavax.

The joint venture of Cadila (80 per cent) and Novavax (20 per cent) was formed according to the agreement signed between the two companies in March. CPL Biologicals will work for development and manufacturing of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines, biological therapeutics and diagnostics, the CPL Chairman, Mr Indravadan A. Modi, told a press conference.

Besides swine flu vaccine, the joint venture would also work on the development of “novel, affordable vaccines” to prevent avian flu, cancer, SARS, chikungunya and more such diseases.

The Chairman of Novavax, Mr John Lambert, and the Vice-President (Strategy), Mr Thomas J. Johnston, were also present at the event.

Cadila Pharma is the largest shareholder of Novavax, a Nasdaq-listed, clinical stage biotechnology company, and has a position on the Novavax board.

Introducing Novavax’s “virus-like particles” (VLP) technology, that compresses vaccine manufacturing time and mimics the virus without the ability to cause infection, the joint venture intends to launch the swine flu vaccine soon, provided it receives approvals, as it was under phase-II clinical trials in the USA.

The vaccine would be first procured from Novavax before being manufactured in India, at the Dholka facility of Cadila Pharma.

More Stories on : Alliances & Joint Ventures | Pharmaceuticals

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