The genesis of Shantha Biotechnics Ltd can be traced back to the initiatives of Dr. K I Varaprasad Reddy, the Founder and Managing Director. Dr. Varaprasad, an electronics engineer by profession, established the company in 1993 with the sole purpose of developing efficacious but cost effective vaccines and therapeutics that are within the reach of the common man.
The seeds of this ambitious venture were sown in Geneva at a conference on global programs for immunization. This is where Dr.Varaprasad first realized the pressing need for an affordable Hepatitis-B vaccine for India. At that point in time, the high cost of the imported vaccine rendered it out of reach for most segments of society.
Aware that the price of the vaccine had to be drastically reduced in order for the government of India to include it in the National Immunization Program, Dr. Varaprasad decided to develop the technology in-house rather than importing it at a higher cost. His early years in R&D had given him confidence in indian Scientific talent and he was convinced that given a conducive atmosphere we could put India on the map for Genetic Engineering.
The initial years were tough. Banks and financial institutions viewed the project skeptically and refused to fund the project. The project began modestly as an R&D outfit at the Osmania University under the industry-university interactive programme in 1993 and later at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) until an independent R&D facility was built.
The fledgling company received a big boost with the entry of H.E Yusuf Bin Alawi Abdullah, Foreign Minister of Sultanate of Oman, who invested money in his personal capacity along with other friends as co promoters in 1995. H.E also arranged for long term loans from Oman International bank at low rates of interest. The perseverance and hard work finally began to pay off. In 1997, Shantha developed India’s first r- DNA Hepatitis-B vaccine. And there has been no looking back ever since.
Shantha Biotechnics Limited (Shantha) has become a part of the Merieux Alliance group after MA acquired the majority shareholding in the company in November, 2006. Merieux Alliance is a France based global organization having presence in all elements of the healthcare chain: prevention, diagnostics, prognosis, treatment and clinical monitoring. The group’s turnover is over US$1.3 billion and has a workforce of more than 9000 people around the globe.