Syngene, an integrated research, development, and manufacturing services company, acquired Unit 3 biologics manufacturing facility in Bangalore, India, from Stelis Biopharma, for $86 million. The site will add 20,000 liters of installed biologics drug substance manufacturing capacity for Syngene. The site has the potential for future expansion up to a further 20,000 liters of biologics drug substance manufacturing capacity. It also includes a commercial scale, high speed, fill-finish unit.

The transaction has been approved independently by the respective boards of directors of both the companies, and is expected to close within 90 days.

The facility, which was initially built to manufacture Covid 19 vaccines, is now being repurposed to manufacture monoclonal antibodies. Syngene will further invest up to $12 million to repurpose and revalidate the facility.

The facility covers both drug substance and drug product with installed capacity of 10 bioreactors of 2000L along with associated infrastructure and utilities. The facility also includes 10 additional uninstalled bioreactors – providing the potential for future expansion – and two high speed fill- finish lines.

Jonathan Hunt, Managing Director, and CEO Syngene said, “This acquisition strengthens our growing position as a leading biologics contract development and manufacturing service provider and adds drug substance capacity and a drug product capability years earlier than our internal capex program. We see healthy demand for high quality biologics manufacturing capacity from sectors ranging from large pharma to emerging biotech companies. In each case, outsourcing to an experienced partner like Syngene is an attractive route to reliably deliver high quality products to market. We expect this facility to be operational in 2024, following completion of a program of facility upgrades and re-validation.”