Mumbai headquartered, PPL, now holds a 27.78% equity stake in that contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) as a result of the investment, which is worth Rs 101.77 crore (around $13m).
Yapan Bio provides process development, scale-up, and cGMP compliant manufacturing of vaccines and biologics/bio-therapeutics, including recombinant vaccines, RNA/DNA vaccines, gene therapies, monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, and other complex biologics.
The CDMO's fiscal year 2021 or FY21 turnover was Rs 12.4 crore, with its revenue standing at Rs 11.8 crore for the first half of FY21.
PPL said the move is set to boost its CDMO business, Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS), adding to its global capabilities in the development and manufacturing of large molecules for human clinical trials.
India's CMO market is expected to grow not only due to the country's large population base but also due to a sharp increase in demand for injectable drugs, especially in cancer research, according to a recent review. “With the injectable drugs industry providing substantially higher returns as compared to other drug formulation types, the higher ROI and therapeutic efficiency are anticipated to boost the growth of the CMO sector in the country,” found that report.
Commenting on the investment, Peter DeYoung, CEO, Pharma Solutions, PPL, said: “During the past decade, biologics and their accompanying development services are the fastest growing segments of the CDMO market. This investment, coupled with the market-leading capabilities of our Grangemouth, UK site in antibody drug conjugations and our sterile fill/finish capabilities in Lexington, USA, demonstrates our commitment to growing our service offerings in the large molecule CDMO space.”
In April last year, Piramal acquired Hemmo Pharmaceuticals, an Indian manufacturer of peptide APIs, with expertise in both solution phase and solid phase synthesis of peptides, a capability that would also complement PPS' existing service offering, reported the company.