True North acquires 3% stake in Biologics India for $100m

Private equity fund True North has acquired 3% stake in Biologics India (BBIL) for nearly $100m, reported The Economic Times.

Following the True North investment, the Biocon-subsidiary now values around Rs250bn ($3bn- $3.5bn), the report added citing two people familiar with the development.

This also forms a portion of BBIL’s more comprehensive fundraising round expected to close by the middle of this year.

A formal announcement of the transaction is expected later this week. However, True North and Biocon did not confirm the deal to The Economics Times queries.

Currently, Biocon is in talks with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the UK Government’s investment arm CDC for additional investments in the subsidiary.

Biocon established BBIL in 2017 to host its biologics business, biosimilars that feature monoclonal antibodies, novel biologics and recombinant insulins. As the name suggests, biosimilars are highly similar to another licenced biologic medicine called reference product.

BBIL is said to be one of the fastest-growing divisions within Biocon. The division aims to achieve revenue of $1bn in the financial year 2022.

In 2018, Biocon, along with its partner Mylan, secured approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for fulphila, a biosimilar to neulasta.

Fulphila minimises the febrile neutropenia duration in some cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The US regulator approved the biosimilar following a review of analytical, non-clinical and clinical data.

Later, Biocon secured FDA green light to start manufacturing fulphila in its facility in Bengaluru.

Biocon also received the FDA approval for another biosimilar called Trastuzumab.

Register as Visitor to CPhI China 2020!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note:

En-CPhI.CN is a vertical B2B online trade platform serving the pharmaceutical industry,

for any copyright disputes involved in the reproduced articles,

please email: Julia.Zhang@ubmsinoexpo.com to motify or remove the content.