Mylab Discovery Solutions, announced its foray into the vaccine and therapeutics segment with its strategic tie-up with Shilpa Biologicals, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Shilpa Medicare, which is a specialist manufacturer of vaccine and wide variety of biologicals.

In April 2020, the CEO of Serum Institute of India Adar Poonawala had taken a stake in Mylab for an undisclosed amount.

Starting with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing opportunity, the parties plan to strengthen the relationship by expanding the product portfolio in various other areas including various biosimilars, other vaccines & diagnostics. 

Mylab plans to develop world-class diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics to augment its presence in the healthcare market. The company will leverage the technical expertise of Shilpa Biologicals in development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals through its world class facility at Dharwad.  

Hasmukh Rawal, Managing Director of Mylab Discovery Solutions, said “Our vision is to develop a complete ecosystem around health of a patient. We want to ensure that from a provider to a patient - all should get a fair value in the system. For this to happen, the current models of care have to change and it is only possible to do with an integrated approach — from testing to treatment.” 

Shilpa Biologicals will utilise its integrated R&D cum manufacturing facility in Dharwad, spanning over 11 acres, to cater to these requirements. This collaboration will also be developing novel technologies that can enable production of safe, efficacious and cost effective vaccines and therapeutics. The first vaccine project under this long-term partnership is currently under final evaluation phase and the manufacturing is expected to start by March’2022.

“We have deep expertise in R&D driven manufacturing of complex vaccines and biologicals at a scale that can serve the world. Our partnership with Mylab will help us unlock significant value in the newer market segments of preventive healthcare. Together, we aim to create products that can serve global markets and establish market leadership”, said Vinay Konaje, Managing Director of Shilpa Biologicals. 

In September 2021, Zydus Cadila had entered into a definitive agreement with Shilpa Biologicals for production and supply of the ZyCoV-D vaccine drug substance from its integrated biologics R&D-cum-manufacturing centre at Dharwad, Karnataka.

Earlier, Shilpa Medicare had signed a deal with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to make five crore doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V at the same location.