Recipharm to construct new Indian fill-finish facility as part of existing relationship with Nichepharm founding family'
India is getting a manufacturing boost that will add the capacity to produce another 1 billion injectables.
Recipharm announced the construction of a new fill-finish facility in Uttarakhand, near Dehradun, in collaboration with the Sobti family. The development is the latest move in a partnership with the family, which began in 2019 after Recipharm invested in Nichepharm.
The site will up Recipharm’s sterile fill-finish service to complement already existing locations in France, Germany and Italy. The project’s next step is to gain authorization from European regulators.
“This is a great milestone for our ongoing partnership with the Sobti family,” Recipharm CEO Marc Funk said in a press release. “From the new facility we’ll be able to provide customers with invaluable access to high quality sterile fill & finish capacity, which is in huge demand globally. A lot of hard work has gone in to ensuring the success of this project and we’re delighted to see it come to fruition.”
The Sobti family, which is from India, created Nichepharm Lifesciences in 2019, and it will initially issue an 8% equity stake to Recipharm for an investment of nearly $10.45 million. Recipharm has the option to acquire an additional 16% share in Nichepharm this year.
Earlier in July, Recipharm announced the Moroccan government would pay $500 million to establish a fill-finish factory over the next five years that is primarily dedicated to manufacturing African vaccines. That will be up-and-running by 2023, so long as it stays on schedule, and will mirror the Monts, France location.
The Swedish CDMO got the go-ahead to manufacture Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine after approval from the EMA’s Committee for Human Medicine at the start of July, and helped ensure the timely delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to Europe.