India’s Granules will do a significant expansion of its API bulk drug site in Vishakhapatnam, and is getting substantial help from the International Finance Corp. to pay for it.
The IFC said it will invest $47.5 million in the $84 million project. The project includes a new API plant at the Vizag site, as well as expanding intermediates capacity and improvements to Granules’ R&D operations to allow it to produce higher value products. It is the fourth time the IFC has helped Granules expand its Indian operations.
Granules got the facilities in Vizag in a 2014 acquisition of Auctus Pharma for a reported $16.5 million. At the time of the deal Granules said acquiring the FDA-approved API operations would help it meet its expansion goals. The company now has 8 manufacturing sites around the world, including operations in Virginia.
The Granules expansion is one of two significant deals in India announced in recent days. Sweden-based CDMO Recipharm has completed its acquisition of Kemwell’s pharmaceutical businesses located in Bengaluru, India for about $118 million. The acquisition is part of a of two-part deal of more than $200 million struck last year in Recipharm also acquired Kemwell’s development business located in Research Triangle Park, NC, and other operations in Sweden. The India part of the deal was separated off because it required approval from India’s government. Recipharm didn’t get Kemwell’s biopharma business as part of the deal, however, the Uppsala, Sweden-based company does have the right of first refusal if Kemwell decides to sell the unit.