Shantha's core values to remain

First it was a Dubai-based investor who put his personal money into the venture, may be out of passion for biotech research. Then came French vaccine major Merieux Alliance. And now it’s the turn of Sanofi Aventis, yet another French drug firm, to invest in it.

But despite the reins changing hands thrice, Shantha founder K I Varaprasad Reddy is confident of retaining the core values of the company — providing affordable vaccines to the developing countries.

Shantha had hit the headlines when it took on drug major Glaxo in the Hepatitis B vaccine market. In 1997, Shantha launched its Hep B vaccine at Rs 70 per dose when some multinationals were selling it at Rs 300.

“At Rs 70 per dose, it is affordable to the needy and very much viable for the company. We don’t have to sell it at Rs 300,” Reddy had said at the launch.

Shantha was founded in 1993. An engineer by qualification, Reddy had his own plan to make it big, even though biotechnology was an unrelated field for him.

According to people tracking the company since its inception, Reddy had gone to Geneva to attend a conference on vaccines and was inspired to make them in India and sell at an affordable price.

In 1993, Reddy started his venture by making use of the genetics lab at the Osmania University in Hyderabad. Then he moved his vaccine development programme to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology lab in the city.

In 1995, at a stage when Shantha had enough proof of concept but not its own lab and facilities, Yusuf Bin Alawi Abdullah, foreign minister of Sultanate of Oman, invested money in his personal capacity along with other friends as co-promoters.

Reddy’s focus though has been on making vaccines and marketing them at an affordable price. Today, Shantha has about 16 products in the market and is one of the largest suppliers to the World Health Organisation’s vaccine programmes. The company has also launched the first cholera vaccine this year.

In November 2006, Marieux Alliance bought the 60% stake held by the Dubai investor and increased it to 78.85% subsequently.

With about 16 vaccines in the pipeline including a typhoid vaccine, Shantha is expected to have revenues of about $90 million for this year. As more products in the pipeline hit the market, revenues are expected to be more than $500 million.