Bengaluru, NFAPost: NBRIC member Richcore LifeSciences in expansion mode: New manufacturing facility in Tumkur – a step towards self-sufficiency in biotech manufacturing
National Biomedical Resources Indigenization Consortium NBRIC is delighted to announce that member Bangalore-based biotech company, Richcore Life Sciences is expanding its manufacturing capability by building a second recombinant protein manufacturing facility, R2 at Vasanthanarasapura, Tumkur a tier two city in Karnataka.
The facility will house a state-of-the-art 180 thousand Litre fermentation capability which can produce multiple recombinant biotechnology products for Biopharma, Cell culture and Food industries.
This new facility will help Richcore multiply its manufacturing capability 20 times by January 2021 and is the first of the many large scale global quality Bio-Manufacturing sites Richcore plans to establish in the next few years.
The foundation stone for the Tumakuru facility was laid by the Honorable Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka and IT / BT, Sicence & Technology Minister, Dr C N Ashwathnarayan on June 15th, 2020.
While congratulating the Richcore team, Dr C N Ashwathnarayan said, that it is “Great to see Karnataka’s BT sector continue expanding beyond the city limits of Bengaluru into innovative tier two cities” and appreciated Richcore’s “Make in India” Initiative.
Richcore’s expansion will go a long way in augmenting indigenous manufacturing of biomedical resources and strengthening India’s domestic supply chain, especially important in the backdrop of the Government’s call for local sourcing and local manufacturing.
Established in 2005 and currently located in Jigani, Bangalore, Richcore’s USP is Non-Animal Origin ‘green’ recombinant protein technology. Their products enable global biologics, vaccine and cell culture companies, achieve higher levels of drug safety compliance by replacing viral-contamination prone, animal-derived components with their recombinant Non-animal Origin (NAO) alternatives.
For example, their recombinant trypsin (rcTrypsin) has enabled production of more than 10 billion doses of safer insulin shots till date. Moreover optimized cGMP development & cGMP certified manufacturing platforms enable them to adhere to international quality control and safety standards.
C-CAMP CEO and Director Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, also Convener of the NBRIC Governing Council, said as a national and global supplier of world-class recombinant protein technologies, a critical component of many biotech and biopharma products, this development at Richcore is of immense significance for India’s AatmaNirbhar Bharat Mission.
“NBRIC welcomes and congratulates Richcore on this achievement and looks forward to working with all stakeholders towards making India a self-sufficient bio-manufacturing hub,” said C-CAMP CEO and Director Dr Taslimarif Saiyed.
Constituted by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and hosted, convened by C-CAMP, NBRIC is a collaborative Public Private Partnership to drive indigenous innovation focused on developing world class biomedical resources such as reagents, diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 and beyond.
Richcore Lifesciences with help from scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research at Pune and Chandigarh have produced two key enzymes which are the main components of the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) diagnostic kits.
Globally, the availability of Taq Polymerase and Reverse Transcriptase enzymes has created impediment towards the mass production of indigenous RT-PCR test kits.
“These two enzymes are very critical to the RT-PCR diagnostic kits because it allows conversion of the virus RNA to DNA. DNA is then amplified to make cDNA (copies of DNA) which confirms whether or not an individual is tested positive Covid-19,” said R Subramani, chairman and managing director, Richcore Lifesciences
Richcore is venture and PE investment backed, and has multiple patent filings, and a high capacity GMP certified manufacturing plant.
