Nanotherapeutics Bohumil s.r.o. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanotherapeutics, Inc.) and Cyrus Poonawalla Group announced today the final transfer of Nanotherapeutics Bohumil s.r.o.’s vaccine production enterprise located in Bohumil, Czech Republic to Praha Vaccines a.s.
The enterprise agreement transfers a 150,000-square foot Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) capable manufacturing facility and other ancillary and support buildings located in Bohumil, Czech Republic, along with the existing employees, contracts, and other assets on a going concern basis, which Nanotherapeutics previously acquired from Baxter International in 2015. The BSL-3 facility was originally designed to manufacture seasonal flu, pandemic flu and other vaccines using Nanotherapeutics’ proprietary serum protein-free Vero cell platform technology. The arrangement includes a limited license to the Vero cell technology. Nanotherapeutics will retain all other rights to its Vero cell platform. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Cyrus Poonawalla Group is happy to acquire this enterprise as a wholly owned subsidiary located in the Czech Republic. The facility will be utilized to produce inactivated polio vaccine, as the world targets eradication of this devastating disease for which there is presently a global shortage. When fully functional, the facility will be able to fulfill global requirements,” said Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of the Group.
Dr. Peter H. Khoury, Executive Director of Nanotherapeutics Bohumil s.r.o. and Chief Commercial Officer of Nanotherapeutics, Inc. noted that “Divesting this facility is central to our business strategy as we transition from an R&D and product company, to one as a service-oriented and customer-focused CDMO. This enterprise sale is a win for Nanotherapeutics, a win for Praha Vaccine and the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, and ultimately, a win for global health and the fight towards eradicating polio in our lifetime.”
About Praha Vaccines a.s.
Praha Vaccines is a fully owned subsidiary Company of Cyrus Poonawalla Group’s Netherlands arm.
Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., which was founded in 1966 by Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla with the aim of manufacturing life-saving immuno-biologicals, the flagship company of the group based in India, is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.3 billion doses per annum) which includes Polio vaccine as well as Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, Pentavalent, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella, Rotavirus vaccines. It is estimated that about 65% of the children in the world receive at least one vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute. Vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute are accredited by the World Health Organization, Geneva and are being used in around 170 countries across the globe in their national immunization programs, saving millions of lives throughout the world.
About Nanotherapeutics Bohumil s.r.o. and Nanotherapeutics, Inc.
Nanotherapeutics s.r.o. is a fully owned subsidiary of Nanotherapeutics, Inc., a biologics focused contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) serving both government and commercial clients. Capabilities of Nanotherapeutics, Inc. include a pilot facility for performing optimization of upstream, downstream and formulation functions, bulk cGMP manufacturing including Biosafety level-3 (BSL-3), and analytical development for proteins, antibodies, viral vaccines and gene therapy drug products. The Company provides expertise from preclinical through FDA licensure in a variety of production platforms, including microbial and mammalian cell culture and its proprietary serum protein-free Vero cell platform, a highly versatile platform that has been developed and utilized to deliver a wide range of candidate and licensed vaccines against emerging viral diseases.