Panacea Biotec

Panacea Drugs Pvt. Ltd. was set up in the year 1984 and got listed in 1995 as Panacea Biotec Ltd. Panacea Biotec is an Indian research based pharmaceutical and health management company involved in research, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceutical formulations, vaccines, and natural products.^[1] It is one of the three largest biotech companies in India.^[2] In August 2011 several of its hepatitis vaccines were removed from the list of prequalified vaccines by the World Health Organization^[3] because of quality management issues, but the issues were resolved by early 2012.^[4]

Panacea Biotec has five research centres across India that specialize in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, natural products and biopharmaceutics.

History

Panacea Biotec claims to be the largest vaccine manufacturing company in India. Panacea Biotec has introduced the next generation inactivated polio vaccine (eIPV) via a collaboration with the Netherland Vaccine Institute. This vaccine has found extensive usage in India for more than three years now and is registered in Bangladesh. IPV is also in an advanced stage of registration in 10 countries worldwide, with the target of being in more than 30 countries in a couple of years, and has been put up for WHO prequalification, which is expected soon.^[5]

Panacea Biotec timeline:

• 1984 - Panacea Drug (P) Ltd. was formed
• 1988 - Established a plant for vaccines production at New Delhi, under the name Radicura Pharma
• 1989 - Pharmaceutical formulations plant at New Delhi, under the name Panacea Drug P Ltd.
• 1993 - Merger of Panacea Drugs (P) Ltd. and Radicura Pharma to form Panacea Biotec Ltd.
• 1995 - IPO of equity shares of Rs.180 million
• 1995 - State-of-the-art drug delivery R&D centre at Lalru
• 1997 - First product patent in several countries
• 2001 - R&D tie up with European MNC
• 2002 - In-licensing agreement with Biotechnology Consortium of India for development and commercialization of anthrax vaccine
• 2002 - Commissioning of a recombinant vaccine production plant
• 2004 - In-licensing agreement with the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, for Japanese encephalitis candidate vaccine
• 2004 - Marketing joint venture with Chiron (now Novartis) Vaccines, UK
• 2004 - Collaboration with Cambridge Bio-stability, UK, for thermo stable vaccines
• 2005 - In-licensing agreement with National Institute of Health, US for a hair growth hormone
• 2006 - WHO cGMP complaint ultra modern pharmaceuticals formulation facility at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh
  • Landmark collaborations with the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (the Nederlands Vaccin Instituut (NVI)) for manufacture and marketing of a finished inactivated polio Vaccine (IPV) and a number of IPV based combination vaccines in India and across the globe
  • Collaboration with PT.Bio Farma to manufacture and market a measles vaccine
  • Inauguration of Biopharmaceutical R&D Centre at New Delhi
  • Pre-qualification certification from WHO for supply of recombinant hepatitis-B vaccine to UN agencies
  • Collaboration with National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) for technology transfer of foot and mouth vaccine
• 2007 - Vaccine formulation plant at Baddi
  • Research agreement with Punjab University to develop new chemical entities for psychiatric disorders
• 2008 - Foray into healthcare delivery – collaboration to set up a 220 bed multi super-specialty hospital in NCR
  • WHO prequalification for fully liquid innovative combination pentavalent vaccine, EasyFive against five deadly infectious diseases (DTwP+ Hep B+ Hib) of early childhood

Nephrology

Critical care, a super speciality SBU of the company, is focused on nephrology therapy in the highly specialized organ transplantation and dialysis management segments. It offers a range of pre-transplant and post-transplant therapies.

Gastroenterology and orthopedic

Procare SBU of the company promotes brands with special focus on orthopedicians, surgeons, dentists, ENT specialists and gastroenterologists, along with consulting physicians and general physicians.

Respiratory

Growcare is the respiratory and pediatric business of Panacea Biotec. This business was carved out of the existing business of Panacea Biotec as part of the long term strategy to enter the high growth Respiratory Therapy. Growcare is a Rs.230 million business with a total field strength of around 350 people. It serves more than 50,000 doctors across the country, including specialists such as chest physicians, consulting physicians, pediatricians and general physicians. 26 different SKUs are marketed with a presence in multiple therapy areas.

Oncology

Panacea Biotec has plans to foray into the oncology segment to provide treatment for cancer, viz, breast cancer, brain tumor, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. 'Oncotrust' would be the new strategic business unit (SBU) with a total strength of around 50 sales specialists on oncology who would be responsible for marketing these drugs. The aim is to register sales volumes of Rs. 150-200 million in the oncology chemotherapy segment in the next three years. The company feels that it would be able to launch a novel drug delivery based anti-cancer drug in the next two or three years.

Value India Healthcare

Some of the brands include TwoWks, a patented product to treat first and second degree piles, Combipunch, a first time in India, DCGI approved formulation for allergic rhinitis, and others.

VIH aims to provide a complete basket of products which a general practitioner needs on a daily basis. The value range of antibiotics, ValueCef, ValueOrni and others; the pain range like Instanim and Nowaste Para; and the respiratory range of KofZero and KoldZero are all steadily gaining the mindshare of the doctor.

ValueIndia currently operates in the rest of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh regions, with plans for expansion to other states shortly.^[6]

References

External links

• Panacea Biotec's official site