KTR launches five projects at Genome Valley; announces investments worth Rs 1,100 crore

Hyderabad: Heralding a new phase of development at life sciences cluster Genome Valley, Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for five projects. These involve a cumulative investment of Rs 1,100 crore and have potential to create employment for 3,000 people. These also include the Biopharma Hub (B-Hub), a PPP project […]

Hyderabad: Heralding a new phase of development at life sciences cluster Genome Valley, Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for five projects. These involve a cumulative investment of Rs 1,100 crore and have potential to create employment for 3,000 people.

These also include the Biopharma Hub (B-Hub), a PPP project with the Government of Telangana State, Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) and Department of Biotechnology. This aims at catalysing the biopharma sector.

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Speaking on the occasion, Rama Rao said the demand for space at Genome Valley was on the rise. “We have a good problem on hand. We are running out of space at the cluster,” he said, adding that various developments and expansions happening would add about 20 lakh sqft space in the next two years or so.

Over 200 biotechnology, life sciences and pharmaceutical companies operate from Genome Valley, India’s first organised research and development cluster. It has more plug-and-play facilities than all clusters put together. Various companies including Biological E Limited and Indian Immunologicals have announced investments worth Rs.2,500 crore to up vaccine manufacturing capacities. Homegrown pharma company Hetero announced Rs 750 crore to set up sterile pharmaceutical products while global pharmaceutical player Roche is setting up its global analytics and technology centre in Hyderabad. Telangana’s life sciences sector is on the track to achieve the $100 billion in turnover sooner than the year 2030 envisaged earlier, Rama Rao said.

Rx-Propellant

Rama Rao also launched the development of 9 lakh sq ft of multi-tenant life sciences laboratory space by Rx-Propellant, which is part of the UK-based global investment firm Actis. Rx Propellant and its associates will invest Rs.900 crore at Genome Valley. The 9 lakh sq ft includes the Biopharma Hub (B-Hub), GV One, an upcoming campus.

The groundbreaking of Phase II of three campuses – Innopolis, Touchstone, and ARX – was also conducted. Rx Propellant has plans to increase the investment in Genome Valley to Rs.2,000 crore in two years with a potential employment generation of more than 3,000 scientific jobs for the cluster.

“While Hyderabad already has the largest multi-tenanted labspace in the country, we are committed to enabling more world-class infrastructure to support growth of the life sciences sector. I am excited that Actis and Rx Propellant chose Hyderabad and Genome Valley to set up their plug-and-play infrastructure and will be developing close to a one million sqft labspace,” the Minister said.

GV Research Platforms

Rama Rao also inaugurated preclinical research services player GV Research Platform’s (GVRP) facility being set up with Rs.40 crore in 28,000 sq ft. With this, biomedical companies in India can locally source specific pathogen free (SPF) research models. It has partnered with Envigo RMS LLC (USA) as its authorised breeder and distributor for services in India. GVRP also undertakes preclinical testing services. It will employ 100 people.

Over the next 3 years, the company has plans to invest an additional $10 million to introduce complementary research areas with the workforce increasing to 200 people. By 2024, it plans to move all the SPF rodent breeding operations to a dedicated 50,000 sq ft facility for inclusion of additional rodent strains, Guinea Pigs, Hamsters and rabbits in the portfolio.

Yapan Bio

Yapan Bio, in which Piramal Pharma holds a strategic minority, has expanded its capabilities with a new process development facility to support development and manufacturing of RNA, DNA and gene therapy products starting from plasmids. The expansion includes three upstream suites (including Bio-Safety Level-2 containment), a downstream process development lab, an analytical development lab, and supporting infrastructure. This is part of its $ 8 million investment.

VIMTA Labs

VIMTA Labs, a Hyderabad-based contract research and testing organisation, inaugurated its electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) lab. It is equipped to handle complex testing to support the electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) requirements of active medical devices, wireless, defense, and other electronic Industrial sectors.

• Rx-Propellant, part of UK- based global investment firm Actis, developing 9 lakh sqft

• Rx-Propellant and associates to invest Rs 900 crore, to be ramped up to Rs 2,000 crore in two years

• GV Research Platform is investing Rs.40 crore

• Yapan Bio sets up new process development facility to support development and manufacturing of RNA, DNA and gene therapy products

• VIMTA Labs sets up electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) lab