VINS Bioproducts ventures into new therapeutic areas

An uncommon product can set you apart from the herd. And that's how VINS Bioproducts' anti snake venom serum won them a berth in the Dubai SEZ. P Viswanath reports on future plans and products

Hyderabad-based VINS Bio-products, producers of anti snake venom serum (ASVS) and anti rabies serum (ARS) is entering newer therapeutic areas like cardiology, blood products and oncology. Established in early 2000 with a clear view to produce life saving drugs for rural areas at cost-effective prices, the company is now a market leader in ASVS. VINS recently commissioned a US FDA compliant facility at Timmapur, 40 km away from Hyderabad in Mahaboobnagar district. VINS had invested Rs 40 crore in the new facility.

"The new manufacturing facility will help us to augment present capacities with a portion of it to be dedicated for emerging outsourcing opportunities. Production in the new 23 acre facility has commenced, currently 30 percent of capacity is being utilised, by the year end we will able to scale by 60-70 percent," says S N Daga, Chairman, VINS Bioproducts.

Daga, the founder-promoter of the company ventured into the biotech sector to support the business plans of a friend, N Viswanath. When the company ran into manufacturing and sales related difficulties, Daga took over operations. Incidentally, Daga was also a shareholder and promoter-director of Heritage Foods.

"Getting permissions from various government departments was tough initially, but once we started delivering, we were not only able to produce products of highest quality but also reduced the cost of the product by 50 percent. This was possible by introducing new technologies," says Daga.

Exports account for about thirty percent of the company's sales. The company exports its products to Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and has liaison agents in these countries. VINS expects to reach wider horizons in the near future in various African and Asian nations.

"We are also planning to enter markets in Africa and Asia. We have already applied for registrations in 12 countries, and the registration processes are in advanced stages and hopeful that most of them would be through by next year March," he adds. The company registered a year-on-year growth of 100 percent in the last financial year, according to Daga.

The company has a modern facility at Erdanur situated 40 kilometers away from Hyderabad in Medak district for manufacturing and quality testing biological and biopharmaceutical products. The facility has a capacity of one million vials per annum and dedicated areas for various categories of products. The company also has two equine farms for obtaining sera under controlled conditions to ensure purity and safety of its products.

VINS is only the second Indian company to get permission to set up a serum facility in the Dubai Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The facility will be operational sometime in 2008. "Dubai is offering world-class facilities in its specialised biotech parks, enabling 20-30 units to operate in a single SEZ. It’s not because of the size of our company that they selected us. Rather, the type of products we make and our significance for the region, were the key selection criteria. As snakebites in deserts are quite common, our ASVS product is going to be very useful for the region," he adds.

VINS is also in discussions with a Chinese company to produce recombinant products. The company has an ambitious plan to achieve a turnover of Rs 300 crore in the next three years. "By March everything will be in place, the target we have set is very feasible," says Daga.

VINS has introduced the snake venom antiserum IP as the first product, which was launched in the year 2000. This product has been well accepted in the Indian market and has made rapid strides in capturing sizeable market share since inception. The product is equine based immunoglobulin enzyme treated and is presented both in liquid and lyophilised form for treatment against snake bites of species cobra, Russell's viper, common krait and the saw-scaled viper. The rabies antiserum IP was introduced by VINS in 2002. Rabies antiserum IP is presented as a liquid product with 1500 IU in each vial. Tetanus anti toxin, Diphtheria anti toxin, Scorpion venom anti toxin, Gas gangrene anti toxin and Human Anti-D Immunoglobulins are the other products.

Commenting on the biotech industry, Daga avers that biotech industry is given step-motherly treatment by the Andhra Pradesh government. "Though the state has advantages like skilled manpower, infrastructure and biotech base, the government focus is somewhat missing. The proactiveness it shows in facilitating the IT industry through various incentives like land allotment and other facilities is missing here. According to an estimate by CII, the Biotech sector in India would grow 20 times from the current size by 2012. If these figures need to be sustained, both central and states governments have to do a lot on the infrastructure front by setting up exclusive biotech parks, with good access to transport and communication." he says.

The company has entered into a marketing agreement with Indian immunologicals, under which the PSU will market VINS' anti rabies serum in their over 2000 retail outlets across the country. The offerings of the two companies—anti rabies vaccine and anti rabies serum—complement each other, and conform to the WHO recommended regimen for the treatment of rabies. They are thus expected to deliver marketing synergies.

In October, VINS signed an agreement for venom-research with the US-based Natural Toxin Research Initiative. As part of the agreement, VINS will be working on identification and characterisation of protein DNA in snake venom, which can have a great deal of medicinal value. "It's a long term partnership, and we will be working on venom of Indian snake species. But we can't divulge financial terms of this deal," says Daga.

As the life sciences sector is perceived as a sunshine sector, it is attracting several private equity players. The promoter is however cautious about this interest. "Of late, we are getting lot of proposals from private equity investors, but at this point of time our aim is to complete our expansion plan, stabilise our operations and to become part of the medium league, then we can probably think of private equity investment," signs off Daga.

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