Press Releases

Biological E. Limited Acquires Akorn India

Biological E. Limited, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceuticals & Biologics company, announced the acquisition of Akorn India Limited, a subsidiary of Akorn Inc., USA.

By this strategic acquisition, BE, which manufactures specialty generic injectable medicines and also vaccines, will be able to enhance its manufacturing capabilities and capacities to produce & supply its vaccines and injectable medicines. BE is in the process of developing a COVID-19 vaccine and may be able to use the facilities at Akorn India Paonta Sahib Plant in Himachal Pradesh for commercial scale manufacture of the vaccine at the appropriate time.

The Akorn India plant in Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh has a fully staffed sterile injectable manufacturing facility with a 39,000 sq. mtrs of built up area spread over a 14-acre campus with an annual capacity for about 135 Million Units with the potential for immediate expansion of a further 30 Million Units.

Ms. Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E. Limited, said: “We are happy to have made a strategic investment in acquiring Akorn India. We would leverage BE’s and Akorn India’s capabilities to enhance our supply capacities both in Vaccines and in Generic Injectables. The timing of this acquisition is fortuitous as it will immediately allow us to expand our capacity to manufacture our investigational COVID-19 vaccine. With these capacities, we would be in a position to offer over 1 billion doses per annum.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Narender Dev Mantena, Director, BioE Holdings Inc., who heads BE’s novel vaccines initiative, said “We are glad to have acquired Akorn India, which is known for its injectables and specialty sterile pharmaceuticals capabilities. This acquisition will allow us to expand our capacities to meet the increasing demands of our Specialty Generic Injectables for the US and EU customers. This acquisition will pave a new way for BE and add a significant value for our business operations and global supply of our products

About Biological E. Limited

Biological E. Limited (BE), a Hyderabad-based Pharmaceuticals & Biologics Company founded in 1953, is the first private sector biological products company in India and the first pharmaceutical company in Southern India. BE develops, manufactures and supplies vaccines and therapeutics. BE supplies its vaccines to over 100 countries and its therapeutic products are sold in India and the USA. BE currently has 8 WHO-prequalified vaccines in its portfolio.

In recent years, BE has embarked on new initiatives for organisational expansion such as developing generic injectable products for the regulated markets, exploring synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as a means to manufacture APIs sustainably and developing novel vaccines for the global market.