Serum Institute of India, the flagship company of the Poonawalla Group, has acquired Dutch vaccine maker Bilthoven Biologicals for about 32 million euros (about $40 million), gaining access to the technology for manufacturing injectable polio vaccine.

Through the acquisition, the Serum Institute, India's largest vaccine company, will get access to technology and expertise for making the injectable polio vaccine (Salk), the company said in a release.

As of now, only three other companies possess the unique capability and expertise to manufacture injectable polio vaccine globally.

The first overseas acquisition by the over $1 billion Poonawalla Group, this will also provide the Group and Serum Institute an important manufacturing base in Europe, with access to the important European and US markets.

Bilthoven Biologicals, located in the city of Bilthoven, near Amsterdam, has a manufacturing facility spread over 20 acres and employs over 200 people. The facility has a manufacturing capacity of over 20 million doses of vaccines a year and markets most of the vaccines in Europe and other developing countries.

 ''The Poonawalla Group, as indeed Serum has constantly striven hard to provide the highest quality vaccines at affordable prices to the world. This acquisition will significantly strengthen our position in the global vaccines market, while giving us access to the technology and production facility of injectable polio vaccine (Salk),'' Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla Group and Serum Institute, said.

''More importantly it also gives the Poonawalla Group an important operational and strategic beachhead in Europe and the US, with the important manufacturing base in the Netherlands. This will also significantly enhance our earlier offerings in the pediatric vaccines segment, including DPT, measles and MMR vaccines where we are the global leaders today,'' he added.

Bilthoven Biologicals was owned by the government of Netherlands and Serum Institute has had business dealings with Bilthoven Biologicals for the last 35 years.

The Poonawalla Group will invest over 70 - 80 million euros to augment infrastructure and enhance manufacturing capacity of Bilthoven's facilities over the next three years, said Adar Poonawalla, executive director of the Poonawalla Group and Serum.

Serum Institute has one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturing facilities at Pune and with a second manufacturing facility in Europe, the company aims to access the developed markets of Europe and USA for its existing and future products in the pipeline.

Serumn Institute offers curative as well as preventive medicines in niche segments such as measles, MMR, rubella, rabies, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenza type B (HiB) and DTP, among others.

Serum Institute has recently set up Serum Bio Pharma Park, India's first biotech special economic zone. The Park adjoining Serum Institute's existing manufacturing unit, is meant for biotechnology and pharmaceutical products.
 
Serum Institute, since its inception in 1966, has grown manifold and is now the world's largest producer of measles and DTP group of vaccines and the lowest-cost producer of vaccines globally. The company's vaccines are used in two out of every three children immunised in the world today.

The largest exporter of vaccines and immuno-biologicals, exporting products to more than 130 countries, Serum Institute is recognized the world over as a reliable source of quality vaccines. It also supplies to international health agencies like the WHO, UNICEF, PAHO.