Aurobindo arm Theranym to invest $150-175M in new biologic drug substance unit for MSD

Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma on Wednesday informed the bourses that its subsidiary TheraNym Biologics Pvt Ltd has fortified its collaboration with Merck Sharpe & Dohme Singapore Trading Pte Ltd (MSD) by executing an additional product schedule under their existing contract manufacturing organization (CMO) agreement of May 2024. Under the newly signed product schedule, TheraNym Biologics will be investing around $150 million to $175 million for setting up a greenfield large-scale drug substance manufacturing facility equipped with mammalian cell culture bioreactors of around 60,000 litres along with the requisite advanced downstream purification infrastructure for drug substance production. TheraNym will build the manufacturing facility, called TheraNym Unit 2, to manufacture the products and supply to MSD as per the arrangement, Aurobindo Pharma said. The facility will manufacture biologics for the domestic as well as international markets and will further expand the Aurobindo arm's existing CMO relationship with MSD for biologicals.