Avesta Biotherapeutics and Research Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture between Avesthagen and Meditab Specialities Ltd (of CIPLA group), announced the acquisition of Siegfried Biologics GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of the Siegfried Group in Switzerland.

Active in life science markets, the Siegfried Group is a global manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. With production facilities located in Switzerland, Germany, Malta and the USA, Siegfried currently has approximately 950 employees and achieved annual sales of approximately CHF 320 million in 2006.

ABRPL, based in Bangalore, will manufacture a series of biopharmaceuticals for the global markets with an initial focus on the BRIC markets. This acquisition fits into the strategy of being able to manufacture under USFDA and EMEA compliant conditions.

The facility is expected to initially focus on biopharmaceuticals that are presently under development at Avesthagen through the Avesthagen-Cipla joint venture agreement that was signed in May 2004.

Siegfried Biologics GmbH, based in Berlin, Germany, was started 10 years ago as a contract-manufacturing organisation (CMO). The 50 plus team of people has a solid background and extensive experience in the development of biologics from cell line generation, upstream process development and scale-up to GMP manufacturing.