Laurus Labs forays into biotech, acquires majority stake in Richcore Lifesciences

Laurus Labs has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Richcore Lifesciences. Richcore develops and manufactures biotech products critical for manufacturing biological drugs. Richcore also helps its customers to develop and scale-up their bioprocesses by providing contract research, development, and manufacturing services.

“This acquisition marks Laurus Labs’ entry into the broader biologics and biotech segments, providing the company access to its high growth areas, globally and in India. Laurus Labs will help and drive Richcore to achieve scale and improve product offerings. With this acquisition, Laurus adds a fourth revenue stream to its three existing divisions – API, Formulations and Synthesis. Following the successful closure of the transaction, Richcore will be renamed to Laurus Bio Pvt Ltd,” informed a company release.

The statement from the company also informed, “Richcore has large scale fermentation capabilities and manufactures animal origin free (AOF) recombinant products. These products help vaccine, insulin, stem-cell-based regenerative medicine and other biopharma companies eliminate dependency on animal and human blood-derived products and in turn produce safer medicines. Richcore is currently in its growth phase and its second manufacturing plant near Bengaluru is expected to be completed by March 31, 2021. Richcore has raised early and growth-stage funding from Eight Roads Ventures, VenturEast Proactive Fund and VenturEast Life Fund III.”

Laurus Labs has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 72.55 per cent of Richcore’s shares from Eight Roads Ventures and VenturEast for a value of Rs 246.7 crores. The current promoters of Richcore led by Subramani Ramachandrappa will continue as promoters of Richcore and will be responsible for its management and operations. Laurus Labs will fund the acquisition from its internal accruals and this acquisition will be revenue and PAT accretive.

Commenting on the development, CEO of Laurus Labs Dr Satyanarayana Chava said, “We are very excited on this acquisition, as this gives us entry into high barrier biotechnology segment. Laurus Labs will bring scale to Richcore’s operations and can become a major player in the biotech CDMO space. This will also help Laurus in becoming a leader in biocatalysis as Richcore brings significant expertise in enzyme development for pharma and other industrial applications”

Subramani Ramchandrappa, Chairman & MD, Richcore Lifesciences said, “Richcore and Laurus Labs coming together marks the convergence of Biotechnology and Chemistry faculties. Leveraging the synergies arising from Laurus’s experience and Richcore’s innovation, we plan to build scale as we continue to serve our existing customers and enter new biotech segments. We welcome Laurus Labs on board and thank our customers and team members for their continued patronage and trust in our shared vision. We also thank our existing investors Eight Roads Ventures and VenturEast for their support since our inception.”