A few days back, Aurobindo announced that it was setting up a unit for manufacturing COVID vaccines - for itself and others. This validates my guess - that the Natrol sale was to raise money for vaccine production.
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www....covid-19-vaccines-for-others-6108381.html/amp
The story of how Aurobindo acquired Profectus so cheap, is a very interesting one.
The world has known about rVSV for almost 20 years - but this technique was considered risky - because of the risk of creating genetically engineered viruses. There was major research using rVSV for cancer and HIV - and even very successful trials against breast cancer. But rVSV never got sanction by the authorities.
The first rVSV based technique was used against Ebola in Zaire, in 2016/17. And was declared a massive success. It got the approval for use because of worry that this Ebola outbreak could be out of control.
When the Zebov vaccine succeeded, it gave a shot in the arm to rVSV researchers. But despite this success, the much needed official sanction from the FDA didn’t come! This disillusioned researchers in the field.
In October 2019, the FDA approved Inmazeb - which was a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies for treating Ebola. This approval was the final nail in the coffin - and everyone thought rVSV was well and truly dead.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-treatment-ebola-virus
Post this announcement by the FDA, Aurobindo managed to acquire Profectus for just $10M in November 2019.
And then the world changed. Stories of a deadly new virus outbreak in Wuhan, China started emerging. And this has been a fear for medical authorities around the world for a long time. And suddenly, the FDA woke up and approved Zebov, which was Merck’s rVSV based vaccine for Ebola, in December 2019.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/pre...ease-marking-critical-milestone-public-health
Suddenly, this extremely powerful technique was once again in the reckoning. And Aurobindo had been exceptionally fortuitous in acquiring Profectus so cheap, between these two announcements of the FDA!
The importance of this acquisition is something that even Aurobindo management probably doesn’t realize yet. But the power of rVSV is phenomenal, and it can be used for multiple disease treatments.
What exactly is rVSV? Before that, what is VSV? Vesicular Stomatitis Virus is a well known, well understood virus, which is considered relatively harmless. It infects human beings, and triggers a massive immune response which helps the body fight the virus. And it doesn’t cause any major symptoms, making it safe to use in trials.
Scientists have long wondered, if it’s possible to modify the VSV with recombinant DNA, and trigger a different immune response from the body. And this approach genetically modifies only the glycoprotein of the target disease virus, and merges it into the VSV cytoplasm. What happens with this, is that the human body now triggers antibodies to this new glycoprotein - which effectively allows the body to fight the target virus!!
rVSV has the potential to change the world of medicine forever. It is that big of a deal. And Aurobindo is extremely fortunate to have acquired it so cheap. In a few years time, this acquisition will be seen as having transformed Aurobindo into one of the globally relevant players in pharma space.