Shantha Biologics plans to expand further in vaccines, biologics and injectable manufacturing

Pharma major Shantha Biologics has signed an agreement with Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company, to manufacture cartridges for injectable medicines at its Hyderabad plant.

 

It means Shantha Biologics will fill the cartridges and prepare them for use, a final and highly sensitive step in producing drugs like insulin and other injectable therapies. The financial terms and production volumes remain undisclosed.

 

Cartridge fill-finish involves loading a drug into a slim, pre-filled cartridge that clicks into a pen injector, the format patients use to self-administer their own medication at home rather than in a hospital. The process demands sterile, contamination-free conditions and tight dosing accuracy, since the drug goes directly into the body. This manufacturing format is used across a range of chronic and long-term conditions, including diabetes, obesity, growth hormone deficiencies and certain autoimmune and oncology treatments delivered through biologic therapies.

For Shantha Biologics, the deal is validation as much as it is business. The company's fill-finish lines are automated and approved by the US FDA, one of the toughest regulators in the world. Winning this CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation) mandate from Novo Nordisk, one of the largest insulin and diabetes care companies globally, signals that a plant in India can meet that bar.

The timing works in Shantha Biologics' favour. CDMO partnerships for biologic drugs, medicines made from living cells rather than chemicals, are powering a fast-growing global market. It was valued at $25.32 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to $38.29 billion by 2031, according to industry estimates. Shantha Biologics said it plans to expand further in vaccines, biologics and injectable manufacturing as that demand grows.

The company expects its Hyderabad workforce to grow to around 500 employees in the near future.