Biovet sets up unit to produce animal vaccines

Bangalore: Biovet, an integrated biotechnology company focussing on animal health, announced the commissioning of Asia’s first Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) manufacturing facility.

The facility is designed for the manufacturing of vaccines for animals for the foot and mouth (FMD) disease and TB vaccines for sheep and goats.

The facility located in Malur in Karnataka is promoted as a separate company by the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International, Hyderabad.

Announcing this here at a press conference, Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman of Biovet, said the company had invested Rs 190 crore for the two-phased production programme of FMD vaccine and TB vaccine.

Dr Krishna said: “Biovet’s goal is to address the significant gap in the application of latest technologies by providing healthcare solutions for small and large animals.”

Set up with assistance from the Technology Development Board of Science and Technology Ministry ICICI Technology Development Fund and State Bank of India, Biovet will initially produce 60 million dosages per annum to supply to the FMD control programme launched by the Government to eradicate the disease and help farmers achieve stable income, Dr Ella said.

Dr Ella said Biovet will scale up the FMD prevention vaccine capacity to 200 million dosages per annum in five years and launch the production of animal TB vaccine in two years.

The FMD vaccine will be available during 2008-09.