The
genesis of Shantha Biotechnics Ltd can be traced back to
the initiatives of Dr. K I Varaprasad Reddy, the Founder
and Managing Director. Dr. Varaprasad, an electronics engineer
by profession, established the company in 1993 with the
sole purpose of developing efficacious but cost effective
vaccines and therapeutics that are within the reach of the
common man.
The seeds of this
ambitious venture were sown in Geneva at a conference on
global programs for immunization. This is where Dr.Varaprasad
first realized the pressing need for an affordable Hepatitis-B
vaccine for India. At that point in time, the high cost
of the imported vaccine rendered it out of reach for most
segments of society.
Aware that the price
of the vaccine had to be drastically reduced in order for
the government of India to include it in the National Immunization
Program, Dr. Varaprasad decided to develop the technology
in-house rather than importing it at a higher cost. His
early years in R&D had given him confidence in indian
scientific talent and he was convinced that given a conducive
atmosphere we could put India on the map for genetic engineering.
The initial years were
tough. Banks and financial institutions viewed the project
skeptically and refused to fund the project. The project
began modestly as an R&D outfit at the Osmania University
under the industry-university interactive programme in 1993
and later at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology
(CCMB) until an independent R&D facility was built.
The fledgling company
received a big boost with the entry of H.E Yusuf Bin Alawi
Abdullah, Foreign Minister of Sultanate of Oman, who invested
money in his personal capacity along with other friends
as co promoters in 1995. H.E also arranged for long term
loans from Oman International bank at low rates of interest.
The perseverance and hard work finally began to pay off.
In 1997, Shantha developed India’s first r-DNA Hepatitis-B
vaccine. And there has been no looking back ever since.
Shantha Biotechnics Limited (Shantha) has become a part of the Merieux Alliance group after Merieux Alliance acquired the majority shareholding in the company in November, 2006.
In 2009, sanofi-aventis and Merieux Alliance signed a strategic agreement for the acquisition by sanofi pasteur of Shantha. Under the terms of this agreement, sanofi pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis group supports Shantha’s ongoing development as a platform to address the needs for high quality affordable vaccination in international markets. Sanofi-aventis has a workforce of 105,000 employees in 110 countries and its net sales were of €29.3 billion in 2009.
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