Strides Pharma Science on Monday said it has entered into a binding agreement to sell biologics Unit-3 manufacturing facility of its associate company Stelis Biopharma (SBL) to Syngene International on a slump sale basis for ₹702 crore in an all-cash deal. The sale will help Strides in paring its debt.
The multi-modal manufacturing facility is located at Bommasandra Industrial Area in Bengaluru, was initially built to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines, is now being repurposed to manufacture monoclonal antibodies and Syngene will further invest up to ₹100 crore to repurpose and revalidate the facility.
The transaction has been approved independently by the respective Boards of Stelis and Syngene.
The transaction should conclude within 90 days, subject to customary conditions, including receiving required lender and regulatory approvals. The site will add 20,000 liters of installed biologics drug substance manufacturing capacity for Syngene. The site has the potential for future expansion up to a further 20,000 liters of biologics drug substance manufacturing capacity. It also includes a commercial scale, high speed, fill-finish unit – an essential capability for drug product manufacturing.
Strides said, despite the sale of Unit-3, Stelis will continue to expand its client base through global partnerships and the induction of new drug substance and drug product programs at its integrated drug substance and drug product flagship facility (Unit 2) in Bengaluru.
Stelis will also have the Unit 1 facility, which is equipped for process and analytical development for small-scale early and late-stage development studies of drug substances and drug products, as well as initial technology transfer activities across various modalities.
The Unit 2 flagship site is approved by the USFDA, EU-GMP, TGA, Australia, amongst several other regulators.