Adar Poonawalla-helmed Serum Institute will pump in 240 million British pounds to expand its vaccine business and setting up a new sales office in the UK. This investment is part of plans for 1 billion British pound India-UK Enhanced Trade Partnership, which will create approximately 6,500 jobs in the UK, Downing Street announced.
The investment by the Pune-based pharma giant is aimed at supporting clinical trials, research and development, and also likely manufacturing of vaccines to help the UK combat coronavirus pandemic. The sales office is likely to generate new business worth around 1 billion British pounds and 200 million British pounds will be invested in the UK market, according to the statement.
Serum Institute of India has also started phase one trials of a nasal vaccine against COVID-19 in the UK in partnership with a British biotechnology firm Codagenix INC.
The Indian pharma behemoth , which is known globally for its vaccine production capacity is among 20 Indian companies across sectors (healthcare, biotech and software services) to announce massive investment plans in the UK.
Other notable Indian investment in the UK ahead of Prime Minister Modi and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's virtual dialogue us 59 million British pounds investment by Global Gene Corp. The investment by Global Gene Corp is aimed at creating 110 highly skilled jobs in the UK, most of which will be at the R&D Centre in Cambridge's Wellcome Genome Campus-site of the Human Genome Project.
"The ambition with the investment is to make an exponential leap into the healthcare of the future through genomics from discovering the next generation of drugs to precision medicine a task 'even more critical' in the context of COVID-19 pandemic," Chairman and CEO of Global Gene Corp said.
Some other Indian investments ahead of the virtual talks between Narendra Modi and Johnson are: Q-Rich Creations investing 54 British pounds and creating 667 jobs; Wipro investing 16 million British pounds and creating 500 jobs; 12 Agro investing 30 million British pounds and creating 465 jobs; Mastek creating 357 jobs and Sterlite Technologies investing 15 million British pounds.
Edited by Mehak Agarwal; with agency inputs
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