Hyderabad: 1 dead in explosion at GVK BIO plant

HYDERABAD: A 23-year-old contract worker died in an explosion at one of the chemical reactors of city-headquartered GVK Biosciences Pvt Ltd’s facility at Nacharam on Tuesday. The victim, T Naveen, was a resident of Mallapur and a native of Guntur in AP .
Naveen’s body was crushed under the debris and it took over an hour for rescue workers to recover it. His body was later shifted to Gandhi Hospital for autopsy, police said. The blast happened when nine workers were inside one of the blocks of the plant, where the company manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
“Some 22 reactors are inside that block. It seems pressure built up inside one of the reactors, which was being handled by Naveen. He died in the explosion,” Nacharam inspector M Mahesh said.
Police said power supply was cut to ensure no further damage. “All other workers escaped unhurt. Some are in shock, but none of them suffered injuries,” the inspector added.
“Fortunately, there was no fire after the explosion. Even though a fire tender was sent, it was recalled after some time,” said Shankar Lingam, assistant district fire officer, Cherlapally and Malkajgiri.
Police said while the incident occurred at 5 pm, the fire control room was alerted at 6.30 pm.
Confirming the incident, the Hyderabad-headquartered global contract research and development company said in statement: “There was an incident in one of our manufacturing blocks where one of our reactors malfunctioned, resulting in the casualty of one contract workman. We have notified the authorities and are investigating the cause of the incident. An update will be provided when available. We confirm that all GVK BIO employees are safe. Our prayers and thoughts are with the family of the deceased.”
According to a pharma safety expert, there could be multiple reasons for the explosion, one being lack of proper maintenance of equipment. “A malfunction in the cooling coil could also lead to excessive pressure building up and leading to an explosion. Only after a proper inspection, can one confirm what led to the accident,” he said.
Incidentally, in 2013 a fire had broken out at one of the company’s facilities at Uppal, but no casualties were reported.
The privately held company, which was set up in 2001 by former Ranbaxy managing director Davinder Singh Brar and GV Sanjay Reddy, has five research facilities, including four in India and one in California, US, and a team of over 2,000 scientists.
The company used to carry out clinical trials at its Hyderabad and Ahmedabad facilities, but following allegations of irregularities in 2014, its clinical trials business came to a grinding halt. In December 2014, European regulators had suspended marketing approvals of 700 generic drugs (being sold by various global pharma players), for which clinical trials were conducted at GVK BIO.