No plans to make vaccine: Sun Pharma

The Mumbai-based company, which is strong  in  various  generic  therapeutic  segments, is eyeing biosimilars to fuel its future growth.“I think our preliminary   assessment  indicates  that  vaccines  will  require a dedicated manufacturing facility and it cannot be produced in a facility where we are making multiple other products,” Dilip Shanghvi, MD, Sun Pharmaceutical  Industries, said in a call with analysts.

The  billionaire  industrialist  noted  that  for  getting  into  vaccine  production, a completely new set of manufacturing infrastructure is required.“So,  that’s  broadly  our  understanding. So, we currently don’t have any facility which we  are  looking  at  for  producing vaccines,” Shanghvi said.On  the  biosimilar  front,  he  noted  that the drug firm is looking to develop a range of such products.

“We  are  evaluating  development  of  some  biosimilars  which  can  be  classified amongst the third wave of biosimilars,”  Shanghvi  said  while  clarifying  that  the  company  is  looking  at  2030  kind  of  timeline  for  such  products  to  hit the market. A  biosimilar  is  a  product  which  is  similar  to  another  already  approved  biological medicine.

The company is looking at products which  have  significant  future  patent  expiry dates so that it could be amongst the first firms to get initial approvals, Shanghvi said.“That’s  the  focus  and  priority.  And  that’s  not  the  only  (thing),  there  are  multiple  priorities,  and  also  (we  are)  trying  to  find  a  way  by  which  we  can  leverage our presence in the market so that  we  can  successfully  build  a  biosimilars portfolio,” he added. He noted the development of the biosimilars  would  not  be  a  ‘big  drain’  on  the  company’s  cash  flow  and  profitability.