‘Our goal is to attain leadership in Indian veterinary vaccine segment'

Veterinary vaccine manufacturer Biovet plans to invest Rs 200 crore for further expansion and aims to capture 50 per cent market share in the next two years.Dr Panduranga Rao Pavuluri, Vice President Production, Biovet, talks about the company’s strategy to acheive this goal and its areas of focus in an exclusive interaction with Usha Sharma

- Usha Sharma

Tell us about the initiatives that Biovet has taken up. What is the objective behind making an investment of Rs 200 crores for building a new facility?

Biovet is a technology-driven company with several new products in the pipeline. Presently, we are producing veterinary vaccines. Recently, we have made an announcement of Rs 200 crores for expanding our Foot & Mouth, Brucellosis Vaccine manufacturing facilities in Malur. Out of the total, Rs 150 crore is for the construction of two production lines for foot and mouth disease vaccine. And Rs 50 crores will be invested in the construction of Brucella vaccine manufacturing facility. With the currently available line, there will be three lines dedicated to three different strains of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine.

How are you arranging for the funds?

We are arranging the required funds from internal accruals and the partial amount will be borrowed. The Fermentation technology for Brucella vaccine is developed in house, which will enable us to produce the vaccine in large scale. The technology is designed for high dense cell cultures for better production of viral vaccines.

Which vaccines will be manufactured in the new facility and by when the commercial production will begin?