Specialty drug maker Strides Arcolab said it had chosen Malaysia's year-old biotechnology park to set up its first manufacturing facility for biotech drugs.

Its new Malaysian venture, Agila Specialties (Malaysia) SDN BHD, has signed an MoU with Malaysian State-promoted Bio-XCell to start a biopharma and injectables plant in the biotech zone, the company said on Wednesday. Strides has eight other facilities across the world.

Mr V.S. Iyer, CEO of Agila Specialties, told Business Line there would be no specific investment as Bio- XCell would custom-build and lease out the facility to Agila. The extent of land was also being decided.

“This is part of our biosimilars strategy,” he said. The company already had a number of biotech products under development through biotech company Inbiopro Solutions, in which Strides owns 70 per cent stake. The plant at Johor should be ready in a couple of years when these candidate drugs for cancer treatment also got ready to be manufactured, he reckoned.

In December 2010, Strides said about its biotech foray and the Rs 65-crore investment in Inbiopro: “The acquisition gives Strides immediate access to a pipeline of eight products estimated to have global sales of over $28 billion. Commercialisation of these products is expected to begin in 2013.”

It follows Biocon, French company Metabollic Explorer and Glycos Biotechnologies, US, the other early investors at Bio XCell.

Mr Adam Levitt, CEO-Americas of Strides Arcolab Ltd, exchanged the MoU with Mr Raja Ridzwa Raja Abdul Aziz, CEO of Bio-XCell during the annual BIO convention in Washington DC.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri MuhyiddinYassin, was present. Mr Levitt was quoted as saying Malaysia's strategic location and attractive financial incentives in the ecosystem firmed up the decision to go there.

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