VAV Lifesciences, through its subsidiary VAV Lipids, has agreed with a US-based multinational contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), to manufacture and supply highly purified synthetic phospholipids suitable for vaccine manufacturing.

The CDMO will use lipids made by VAV to produce gene-based lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) on behalf of brand owners namely Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

VAV Lifesciences Pvt Ltd, which is headquartered in Mumbai, is the only Indian company whose lipids will be used in the mRNA-LNP technology-based vaccines.

It will thus play a vital role in the global vaccine supply chain. The company has already initiated a commercial supply of phospholipids for large-scale vaccine manufacturing through its EU cGMP certified facility under its subsidiary company, VAV Lipids, based at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

Speaking about this development, Arun Kedia, Managing Director, VAV Lifesciences said, “We are proud to be the first and only Indian company to produce high-quality phospholipids that have been approved for use in these novel vaccine delivery systems.”

VAV has already started receiving orders on a regular basis from the CDMO. Of this, about 80 per cent of the order quantity has been either delivered or is in the supply chain with new orders already under discussion. VAV will manufacture all its synthetic phospholipids at its EU cGMP certified facility at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.