Cytiva, TS ink MoU for Biopharma Scale-up facility in Genome Valley

Cytiva (previously GE Healthcare Life Sciences) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Telangana government to set up a Biopharma Scale-up facility in Genome Valley near here.

The 10,000 sq.ft. lab at the life sciences hub of Telangana will accelerate and advance the local biotechnology ecosystem. With over 800 Life Sciences companies nearby, the facility will help the biotechnology hub increase production efficiency, reduce cost and speed to market, a release said.

The Biopharma Scale-up facility will provide professional training, technology evaluation, consultancy services, infrastructure support for process development and the flexibility to scale up.

Director of Life-Sciences, Telangana government, and CEO of BioAsia Shakti Nagappan said the proposed 2,000-litre single-use Mammalian cell culture facility will help biopharmaceutical companies to do proof of concept and testing. It will function on a pay-per-use model and help optimise the costs of the user-companies. The Cytiva facility, expected to take 15 months to be established, will be part of the B-Hub that the State government has proposed in Genome Valley.

The MoU documents were exchanged at BioAsia 2021 inaugural session in the presence of Industries and IT Minister K.T.Rama Rao, who said while there exist formidable capabilities in chemical drugs in the country, the B-Hub proposed in Genome Valley will help Telangana and India accelerate the growth of biopharmaceutical sector.

The Minister also cited some of the recent big investments, completed and committed, in Genome Valley. It included a ₹400-crore research and development centre of contract research organisation Sai Life Sciences. Drugmakers Granules India and Laurus Labs had recently committed to invest ₹400 crore and ₹300 crore respectively on new facilities there, while the Indian Council for Medical Research is setting up the country’s largest National Animal Resource facility for biomedical research, which is expected to be inaugurated soon.

Syngene’s campus in Genome Valley, inaugurated during last BioAsia, had doubled its scientist headcount in a year from 100 to over 225.

The firm is set to occupy the third building later this year. GVK Bio is also expanding and will add 600 new jobs this year in Hyderabad. He said Canadian firm Jamp Pharmaceutical’s facility in Genome Valley nearing completion.

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