Chennai/Bangalore: Biocon Limited, the country’s second largest biotechnology firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia’s Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) to explore collaboration and potential investment in Malaysia’s biotechnology industry.

Biocon is in talks with BiotechCorp to manufacture biopharmaceutical products and formulation, within Malaysia’s Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia, in the biotech park called the Bio-XCell Ecosystem.

Biocon is also developing biotechnology infrastructure in the Bio-XCell Ecosystem Project. BiotechCorp is the lead development agency for the biotech industry in Malaysia and acts as a central contact point providing support, facilitation and advisory services for biotech and life sciences companies in Malaysia.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon said, “The company is keen to explore Malaysia as a destination for our expansion. Malaysia and the Bio-XCell Ecosystem in Iskandar Malaysia are attractive propositions.”

Biocon develops and manufactures biopharmaceutical products for various medical needs, including cancer, diabetes and inflammatory diseases. In the third quarter of the ongoing fiscal, Biocon posted three times growth in its net profit to Rs 81 crore as compared to the corresponding quarter of last year.

The company is also furthering its own research for oral insulin and has filed an US IND application, which when approved gives the company approval to start human trials, a major step prior to commercialising the product.