Serum to pump in additional USD 150 mn in Biocon Biologics

Serum Institute of Life Sciences will invest an additional USD 150 million in Biocon Biologics as the partners decided to restructure the deal which was inked in 2021, Biocon said on Tuesday.

With the fresh capital infusion, Serum's total investment in Biocon Biologics will touch USD 300 million.

Biocon Biologics Limited (BBL) and Serum Institute of Life Sciences (SILS) have reached an agreement to withdraw from the original equity structure contemplated under their strategic alliance announced in September, 2021, the Bengaluru-based biotechnology firm said in a statement.

As per the new terms of the collaboration, Serum Life Sciences, a part of vaccine major Serum Institute of India, would make an additional equity investment of USD 150 million through the conversion of the USD 150 million loan provided to Biocon Pharma Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Biocon Ltd, into equity in BBL, it noted.

This investment is in addition to the USD 150 million that Serum Institute of Life Sciences had invested in Biocon Biologics in November 2022, it added.

As per the new arrangement, BBL will have access to 100 million doses of vaccines annually together with the distribution rights to Serum's Vaccine portfolio which will add to BBL's product portfolio for global markets.

The new terms will serve the objectives of both the companies, as it provides SILS an aggregated equity investment in BBL amounting to USD 300 million and provides BBL additional product offerings for global markets.

In 2021, BBL had said that it will offer around 15 per cent stake to Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS) at a post-money valuation of about USD 4.9 billion.

For offering the 15 per cent stake, BBL was supposed to get committed access to 100 million doses of vaccines per annum for 15 years, primarily from SILS' upcoming vaccine facility in Pune with commercialisation rights of the SILS vaccine portfolio, including Covid-19 vaccines, for the global market.

Shares of Biocon settled 2.35 per cent up at Rs 230.85 apiece on the BSE.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)