Intas Opening Plasma Fractionation Facility

Ahmedabad: Celestial Biological, a subsidiary of Intas Biopharmaceuticals Limited, is in the process of opening the country''s first plasma fractionation facility near Ahmedabad. The company will infuse Rs 100-120 crore over the next two years and has begun the spadework on the seven acre land it has acquired at Matoda. Initially, the manufacturing unit will have an installed capacity to fractionate 150,000 litres per annum of plasma. The company targets to scale this up to 300,000 litres per annum. Celestial Biologicals has ties up with a chain of blood banks along with Prathama, an NGO, to begin the facility. Implementation of its own plasma fractionation facilities will enable Celestial to leverage its inherent strengths in the areas of biotechnology and transfusion medicine and research. The unit will also enable expansion of its product range by extracting other plasma proteins from source plasma, including Alubumin, Immunoglobulin, Factor VIII, Factor IX, once parameters such as yields, fractionation charges, market demand and pricing are established for these products.