Brooks Laboratories Limited, a leading pharmaceutical company, has entered into a new agreement with SteriScience Specialities Private Limited to make fresh investments in its subsidiary Brooks SteriScience Limited (BSL) to expand manufacturing infrastructure and integrated capabilities for their carbapenem business.

Last year, Brooks had entered into a collaboration with SteriScience to carry out manufacturing, marketing and distribution of carbapenems for the global markets with an integrated infrastructure to manufacture both drug substances and drug products. As part of this collaboration, Brooks and SteriScience had set up BSL, a joint venture company engaged in the manufacturing of the carbapenem products which also housed the manufacturing facility at Vadodara, India.

SteriScience has already invested Rs. 40 crore into BSL, and as per the new agreement signed, SteriScience will infuse an additional amount of Rs. 74.5 crore, making a total investment commitment of Rs. 114.5 crore in BSL.

The new investments will be deployed to set up a dedicated Ertapenem formulation facility and integrate the APIs for all the four carbapenems under development. Besides this, BSL will also set up front-end capabilities to market carbapenem products globally, including the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and India.

BSL has already filed its first ANDA in addition to dossier submissions for 30+ European countries. Going forward Brooks Steriscience Lid. will be merged or dissolved as per legal advice in due course. All IPs/ANDAs/Dossiers will be owned by BSL across the world.

Atul Ranchal, Chairman, Brooks said, "Globally, Carbapenems are a US $2 billion plus opportunity with limited players having dedicated capabilities to manufacture these products for the regulated markets. These fresh investments will bolster our global positioning and fast-track our ability to penetrate new markets with a significant competitive advantage driven by manufacturing, quality and supply assurance.”

Rajesh Mahajan, Managing Director, Brooks said, “We are very pleased with this deal and are excited to partner in this JV. We believe that this deal will further build upon our manufacturing strengths to continue our journey to deliver high quality, niche and specialized products globally."

After completing new investments of Rs. 74.5 Crores, SteriScience will have 51% of BSL, while Brooks will have the remaining 49% ownership.