RxP expands its life sciences real estate portfolio in Mumbai with $150+mn investment

• India is increasingly becoming an attractive destination of choice for pharma and biopharma sector operations
• RxP is a key enabler within India's life sciences infrastructure sector, offering "asset-light" solutions
• RxP announces its expansion in Mumbai with the Navi Mumbai Research (“NMR”) District as part of its continued regional expansion strategy across India
• India is already the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical producer. Overall, more than 3,000 pharma firms and over 10,000 manufacturing facilities currently operate in India

Rx Propellant (“RxP”), a platform focused on providing innovative real estate solutions, including research and development (“R&D”) laboratories and associated facilities for the life sciences and associated sectors in India, is delighted to announce an initial investment of $75mn in phase 1 of the Navi Mumbai Research (“NMR”) District, as part of its continued regional expansion strategy across India.

Today, RxP is a leading player in the life sciences real estate sector and is involved in a number of real estate projects in the design-development stage across Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai with  a total planned development of more than 6.5 million square feet.

The NMR District represents the first exclusive life sciences development in Mumbai and is spread across 16 acres of land with a total development of 1.5 million square feet. It was formally launched in November of last year with the first phase of 400,000 square feet set to be ready for occupancy by late 2025. To be developed in multiple phases, this project will attract a total investment of over $150mn by RxP.

With a planning aim of being the largest exclusive life sciences campus in Mumbai, the project will provide a purpose-built base for housing a broad spectrum of life sciences start-ups, scale-up businesses and well-established enterprises, as RxP look to build on its best-in-class track record and create a truly dynamic ecosystem for the geography.

The project complements the existing clusters in Mumbai such as Thane and Andheri and augments the impressive growth for the life sciences industry in the region (*see appendix).

The NMR District will also have a series of customisable laboratory space areas as well as pilot plants that will sit alongside collaborative spaces, office areas, and centres of excellence. There will also be provision of breakout areas, conference rooms and cafeterias to support general staff activities and well-being.

By way of ESG protocols and a continued commitment to environmental stewardship for RxP, the project will also include significant investments for the use of solar power for electricity, rainwater harvesting mechanisms and recycling of wastewater with a zero liquid discharge (“ZLD”) facility. In addition, the campus will comprise green buildings that are set to achieve both LEED Platinum and WELL compliance certifications.

The leadership and operations team at RxP comprises more than a decade of industry leading experience in developing and promoting life sciences clusters across India. Since inception in 2019, the team has been successfully delivering tailored real estate solutions to its strong base of life science tenants.

Vishal Goel, Managing Director, at Rx Propellant, commented:
“We are absolutely delighted to announce this expansion to Navi Mumbai with NMR District in what testifies our ambitious strategic growth journey and geographical footprint uptick across India. India’s life sciences sector demonstrates vast potential for growth particularly with an increasing trend for outsourcing services across the pharma and biopharma industries respectively. Through our asset-light model and value-chain integrations across unified clusters, we have been providing a robust ecosystem for global life science companies looking at harnessing India for their growth. Life sciences real estate is an established asset class in the US and European regions and we are proud to be the pioneers in India with unmatched scale and a presence in three leading life science hubs to date. We also have active plans for further expansion and diversification and aim to build a portfolio of over 10 million square feet within the next 5 years.”

Milind Ravi, Chief Executive Officer, at Rx Propellant, concluded:

“Current market trends clearly demonstrate that a significant number of global life sciences companies are actively seeking to diversify R&D and manufacturing activities geographically. India presents as a compelling destination choice, particularly with its highly skilled talent pool and cost-effective operations base. Contract development and manufacturing organisations (“CDMOs”) and contract research organisation (“CROs”) have been particularly attracted to India in recent times. With a successful track record of advising marquee global businesses on their India entry strategies and as strategic infrastructure partners for services-focused organisations in India, RxP looks forward to serving the global life sciences community with expansion opportunities in Mumbai, the financial capital and leading pharmaceutical market in India.”