Company Watch

Actis Biologics to sell stake to PE firms

Our News Bureau - Mumbai

Actis Biologics (ABPL), the Indian arm of US Actis Biologics, is planning to raise about $ 30 million by selling stake to Private Equity (PE) players to build two new plants and market a new process that will help other drug makers cut cost. According to Sanjeev Saxena, Chairman and Founder, ABPL, the company will sell a 15 percent stake to US and Europe-based leading PE investors. The sale is expected to be completed in the next four weeks.

Leading biotech companies such as Biocon and Avesthagen are also selling stakes to PE players and other investors to raise money to discover new potential drugs that can be self-marketed or out-licensed to multinational pharma and biotech companies, such as Pfizer, Roche, Astra Zeneca and Amgen. PE investors are keen to invest in drug discovery companies having a good pipeline of products since a successful new drug could reap more revenues from global sales. Saxena indicated that they are in discussions with three syndicates of PE players and will soon sign the deal with one of them. It is believed that the deal would be structured to reduce a 15 percent shareholding across shareholders of ABPL. Actis Biologics holds 30 percent equity in ABPL. The promoters' group led by Sanjeev Saxena has another 35 percent, while contract research company Innovasynth holds 26 percent and the rest is with private investors such as Walchand Industries. Actis Biologics and its parent company Actis Biologics follow a unique model of floating separate incubation companies under their umbrella for various technologies and products under development, with ABPL holding a majority stake. Together, Actis is developing about six technologies, with a potential to develop about five products each in the near future. By the next year, the company plans to launch its first product, VFF2, a technology platform that can reduce the cost of manufacturing of several biotech drugs and food and beverage products by about 80 percent. ABPL is developing Angiozyme, which it acquired from Merck Group company- Sirna Therapeutics a few years ago. The potential drug is used for the treatment of colon cancer and several other diseases. The drug will soon enter last-stage clinical trials in Malaysia and India and later in US. ABPL is also developing a gene therapy programme for the treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer and is working with leading US researchers to develop an immune-therapy programme that can fight infectious diseases like AIDS.