Brilliant Biopharma to double animal vaccine portfolio

Hyderabad-based animal health company Brilliant Biopharma is investing to expand its focus on animal health towards nutrition-based products, as against antibiotics and other medication-based solutions product offerings currently.

The company plans to double its vaccine portfolio to about a dozen vaccines in about a year from now.

B Mourya, chairman and managing director of the company, says the company is setting up new facilities for this purpose near Hyderabad and is investing over Rs 100 crore. Most of these products will hit the market in little over a year from now.

The company claims to be among the largest players from India in the Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccine, with a capacity of close to 300 million doses per annum.

Mourya says the company intends to soon emerge as the largest player in this space. Brilliant's vaccine is apparently also used in the National Foot & Mouth Disease Control Programme (NMD-CP). It also makes several animal vaccines such as animal rabies and bacterial vaccines for cattle.

On the anvil now are new introductions such as vaccines for Sheep Pox, Goat Pox, Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) or goat plague; new cattle vaccines and canine vaccines. Its rabies vaccine, the company claims, is used not only by veterinary practitioners but also by governments and non-government organisations (NGOs) for protection against rabies and for animal birth control (ABC) programmes, which are mostly run by the state governments and local bodies. The company is also among the leading suppliers of veterinary anti-parasitics such as for de-worming programmes targeted at dairy farmers by several state governments and milk cooperatives.

The move to expand its presence in animal nutrition space and vaccine offerings, Mourya says, is keeping in line concept of 'one health' expounded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to work towards measures that lead to better public health outcomes and safe food that is free from the risks of infections.

'One Health' encompasses not just zoonoses (diseases that can be transmitted to humans from animals) but also food safety and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Plus, it is in tune with the trend that consumers have become more aware of the need to protect animal health and thereby avert the potential risks to human health.

Daughter of T G Venkatesh, a politician and business leader from Andhra, Mourya, has been leading the Rs 160 crore company for over a decade now. She sees Brilliant Biopharma as the fastest growing animal health company.

(Edited by E Kumar Sharma)

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