HLL signs MoU with IL

New Delhi, Aug 21 (UNI) Public sector Hindustan Latex Ltd (HLL) today inked a memorandum of understanding with M/s Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) for the development of its integrated medical devices and diagnostic manufacturing park, MediPark, and with M/s NNE Pharmaplan for its integrated vaccine complex, to be set up at Chengalpet near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The MoU was signed by HLL Chairman and Managing Director M Ayyappan, with representatives of the respective project management consultants, IL &FS and NNE Pharmaplan at a special function in the chamber of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Naresh Dayal here. Hindustan Latex Ltd is India's leading provider of contraceptives and health care solutions.

With growing demand from the pharma and healthcare sectors in India, the medical devices and equipment industry is witnessing a vibrant growth with an estimated market turnover of Rs 2,500 crore and is projected to grow at 15 per cent annually.

The proposed state-of-the-art MediPark, to be set up at a cost of Rs 100 crore over a sprawling 330-acre land near CLTRI at Chengalpet, will be a production facility for manufacture of medical devices, medical equipment and medical diagnostics.

Conceived as a public-private partnership, the facility would have sterilisation centre, testing and quality control facilities, waste disposal facility and logistics hub.

IL&FS, the project consultants, will identify prospective investors, structure the project and provide engineering and financial services to the project. Infrastructural facilities to be provided at MediPark will be finalised through the Government by suitable policy interventions.

Medipark, which will bring in latest technologies and systems in healthcare devices, is expected to provide a fillip to the medical industry in the country, which currently depends on imports for almost 60 per cent of its requirements of medical devices. The Integrated Vaccine Complex, coming up over a 100-acre land near CLTRI, at Chengalpet, will house a production facility for vaccines for the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and other new generation vaccines and a vaccine R and D, to make vaccines available at affordable prices. It has been accorded the status as 'a project of national importance' by the Government.

HLL has appointed NNE Pharmaplan India Ltd as project consultant for setting up the complex. The first stage of the project will be commissioned within two years. The unit will be equipped to export the vaccines manufactured in the complex to international agencies to meet the demand for children's vaccines in several poor countries.

The complex will manufacture the conventional bacterial vaccines for the Universal Immunisation programme and other new generation vaccines like measles, hepatitis B anti rabies, Japanese encephalitis vaccine and Pentavalant Combination vaccines (DPT-HepB-Hib). Initially HLL will do the packaging and marketing of bulk vaccines procured from other manufacturers and later go in for primary manufacturing of vaccines from seed strains and has initiated talks with major vaccine manufacturers for possible collaborations.

The complex will have a state-of-the-art vaccine R and D facility to develop new vaccines such as H5N1 to combat bird flu and other infectious diseases.

HLL already has a project team in place with the requisite expertise to successfully implement the project. The initial investment proposed has an outlay of Rs 150 crore over a 20 month period and the final investment will be about Rs 500 crore.

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