Shantha Biotechnics

Shantha Biotechnics Limited

Industry	Biotechnology, Vaccines
Founded	1993
Founder(s)	K I Varaprasad Reddy
Headquarters	Medchal, Hyderabad (India)
Key people	K I Varaprasad Reddy Chairman of the Board
Products	recombinant DNA vaccines
Parent	Sanofi Pasteur
Website	Sanofi Pasteur.in

Shantha Biotechnics is an Indian biotechnology company based in Hyderabad. It is the first Indian company to develop, manufacture and market a recombinant human healthcare product in India. The company is now a wholly owned Subsidiary of Sanofi group.

History

The genesis of Shantha Biotechnics Ltd can be traced back to the initiatives of Dr. K I Varaprasad Reddy and Mr. Khalil Ahmed; Dr. Varaprasad and Mr. Khalil Ahmed established the company in 1993 with the sole purpose of developing efficacious but cost effective vaccines and therapeutics that are within the reach of the common man.

The seeds of this ambitious venture were sown in Geneva at a conference on global programs for immunization. This is where the promoters first realized the pressing need for an affordable Hepatitis B vaccine for India. At that point in time, the high cost of the imported vaccine rendered it out of reach for most segments of society.

Aware that the price of the vaccine had to be drastically reduced in order for the government of India to include it in the National Immunization Program, the directors decided to develop the technology in-house rather than importing it at a higher cost. Their early years in R&D had given him confidence in Indian scientific talent and he was convinced that given a conducive atmosphere we could put India on the map for Genetic Engineering.

The initial years were tough. Banks and financial institutions viewed the project skeptically and refused to fund the project. The project began modestly as an R&D outfit at the Osmania University under the industry-university interactive programme in 1993 and later at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) until an independent R&D facility was built.

The fledgling company received a big boost with the entry of H.E Yusuf Bin Alawi Abdullah, Foreign Minister of Sultanate of Oman, who invested money in his personal capacity along with other friends as co promoters in 1995. H.E was introduced to the company by the (then) Executive Director, Mr. Khalil Ahmed. H.E also arranged for long term loans from Oman International bank at low rates of interest. The perseverance and hard work finally began to pay off. In 1997, Shantha developed India’s first r- DNA Hepatitis-B vaccine. And there has been no looking back ever since.

Shantha Biotechnics Limited (Shantha) had become a part of the Merieux Alliance group after MA acquired the majority shareholding in the company in November, 2006. Merieux Alliance is a France based global organization having presence in all elements of the healthcare chain: prevention, diagnostics, prognosis, treatment and clinical monitoring. The group’s turnover is over US$1.3 billion and has a workforce of more than 9000 people around the globe.

In 2009, French pharma major Sanofi vaccine division Sanofi Pasteur has acquired Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnics, which has been valued at euro 550 million (over Rs 3,770 crore).

External links

• http://www.sanofipasteur.com/sanofi-pasteur2/front/index.jsp?siteCode=SP_CORP&codeRubrique=12&lang=EN
• http://www.biospectrumindia.com/content/shakers/104041201.asp An article on Shantha Biotechnics from BioSpectrum magazine online