CPL Biologicals (CPLB), a joint venture of Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), today announced that it has completed construction of its vaccine facility in Dholka, India and will commence equipment and installation validation this month so that the facility conforms to global standards for production of vaccines for human use.
The new facility utilizes state-of-the-art equipment for fast and efficient production of up to potentially 60 million doses of novel vaccines every year. Mr. I. A. Modi, Chairman of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, said, "This facility demonstrates our commitment to establishing the highest-quality vaccine production facility for our nation. It utilizes world-class design and equipment that will be competitive with the world's leading vaccine companies."
The facility plans to produce seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines based on Novavax's advanced virus-like particle (VLP) technology which enables the rapid development and production of novel vaccines without the use of live virus.
Dr. Rahul Singhvi, President and CEO of Novavax, stated: "We congratulate our colleagues at CPL Biologicals on reaching this important milestone in the development of a state-of-the-art vaccine production facility. This achievement reflects our strategy to partner with leading pharmaceutical companies around the world to develop world-class, in-country vaccine-production capacity and use our novel vaccine technology to solve critical public health problems. This world class vaccine production plant in India will be able to supply India and other countries with novel vaccines against influenza and other infectious diseases by using an efficient, reliable and flexible vaccine production process."
In addition to vaccine production, CPLB is also focused on the development, manufacture and sale of biosimilars and diagnostic kits.
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