Biovet, an animal health vaccine producing company, has embarked on a major expansion plan to create world’s largest FMD vaccine facilities in Malur, Karnataka. The company is investing Rs 200 crore for expanding the current vaccine manufacturing facilities for foot & mouth disease (FMD).

Revealing the details Dr. Krishna Ella, Founder, Promoter of Biovet said: “Expansion of our FMD vaccine facilities to deliver 200 million doses is an important step to increase our contribution to meet the shortage of this vaccine in the country.  We are also excited to announce construction of a new State-of-Art Brucella Vaccine Production facility at the Malur site is underway to produce 100 million doses of Brucella vaccine per year.”

The new investment at its existing site in Malur, Karnataka will not only increase the current vaccine manufacturing capacity from 200 to 500 million doses, it will also make Biovet as the largest FMD manufacturer in the world.

According to estimates, India’s Foot and Mouth Disease control program requires 1000 million doses each year, whereas the current production capacity manufactured in the country is around 500 million doses.  There is an unmet need for 500 million doses, and Biovet aims to fulfill this gap through the planned expansion.

Dr. Panduranga Rao, Vice President of Biovet said, "Our independent production lines for 3 separate serotype FMD viruses on completion will be the first of its kind in the world. Further, the new facility for Brucella Vaccines will place Biovet, as the world’s largest manufacturer of this vaccine”.

Behind these achievements, Biovet is also facing a number of challenges especially in the area of costing. For the manufacturing of these vaccines, the adjuvant is imported from France while the serum is taken from New Zealand. At the end, each dose of the FMD vaccine is priced at Rs 9.

"Our main objective is to give an affordable vaccine to the farmers. Since most of the components for our vaccines are imported, we do face costing challenges. We are trying to resolve these by upgrading our R&D units so that we are able to manufacture the components locally", said Dr Rao.