India’s Bharat Biotech launches cell gene therapy facility, eyes product launch by 2028

By Rishika Sadam

HYDERABAD (Reuters) -Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said on Thursday it had invested $75 million in its first cell and gene therapy (CGT) facility in the southern Indian state of Telangana and expects its new therapies to hit the market in the next three years.

The company is expanding its focus from its core vaccines business into complex cell and gene therapy, the market for which is expected to grow over five-fold to $117.46 billion by 2034 from $21.28 billion in 2024, according to market research firm Precedence Research.

The facility, in which the company is likely to pump in more investment, will be functional in the next three months, Chief Development Officer Raches Ella said in a media interaction.

According to Ella, the company is working on two cell therapies and three gene therapies.

In cell and gene therapies, which are costlier compared to traditional treatments, modified healthy cells or genes are introduced into the patient’s body to treat a condition. These highly advanced treatments are mostly used to treat genetic disorders, complex cancer cases and autoimmune diseases.

Oncology and rare diseases treatment therapies will be the key focus for Bharat Biotech, Ella said.

Cell therapies are largely customised treatments for patients, while gene therapies can be made in large batches for the wider population. Bharat Biotech said it intends to focus more on the latter.

India, compared to global peers, is still in the nascent stages of cell and gene therapy development with barely any adoption. Ella said that the company is also focusing on making the therapies cost-effective in the price-sensitive Indian market.

“I think (in the Indian market) the treatment is priced at about 5 million rupees ($57,900)… we’re trying to get something below that,” Raches Ella said, adding that the company is also looking at the possibility of exporting the therapies.

($1 = 86.3290 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Haripriya Suresh, Writing by Indranil Sarkar and Ananta Agarwal; Editing by Anil D’Silva)