Panacea Biotec Ltd earned a hefty net profit of Rs 8.74 crore during the first quarter ended June 2004, mainly due to sharp rise in sales, as against a net loss of Rs 4.99 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company's net sales increased to Rs 96.02 crore from Rs 32.67 crore, representing a rise of 194 per cent. The earning per share worked out to Rs 1.30 as against negative Rs 0.90 for the last period.

The sales of vaccines moved up to Rs 67.23 crore from Rs 0.91 crore and that of formulations declined marginally to Rs 29.52 crore from Rs 31.73 core. The company earned an income of Rs 0.10 crore from its research and development activities. The profit before tax from vaccines segment touched to Rs 19.62 crore as against a loss of Rs 4.15 crore. However, the company is incurring higher loss from its R&D activities and the same went up to Rs 2.78 crore from Rs 1.83 crore.

There was fire in cold room at Central Warehouse at Delhi due to electricity short-circuit which resulted into loss of stock of Rs 5.10 crore. The company has already lodged a claim with insurance company and it received interim relief of Rs 1 crore.