Panacea Biotec, the second largest vaccine producer in India, has suffered heavy set back during the third quarter ended December 2008 on account of lower sales and foreign exchange loss. The company's net loss of the quarter reached at Rs 18.87 crore as against a net profit of Rs 28.93 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The net sales also declined by 22.3 per cent to Rs 175.91 crore from Rs 226.35 crore on account of fall in OPV sales as Government of India has procured the vaccine from WHO non-pre-qualified manufacturers at much lower prices.

Panacea's vaccines sales declined by 31.6 per cent in October -December quarter to Rs 121.31 crore from Rs 177.42 crore in the similar period of last year. However, the sales of formulations improved by 9 per cent to Rs 54.31 crore from Rs 49.84 crore.

Dr Rajesh Jain, joint managing director, said, "Despite the global economic slowdown, the revenues and EBITDA margins during third quarter have improved as compared to Q2 FY 2008-09. However, the growth has not been as strong as seen in the corresponding quarter of previous year due to deferment of institutional vaccine sales to the next quarter. The company continues to be on strong foothold operationally."

"The company has prepared a new form of Bivalent vaccine which is under clinical trials with WHO at present. Upon successful clinical evaluation this will become a product of choice for eradication drive of polio in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries internationally. With this new form of Bivalent vaccine we expect to regain the lost market share in the next financial year," Jain added.

The company had introduced its innovative, fully liquid, pentavalent combination vaccine - Easy Five, for which we received WHO prequalification and subsequently the award from UNICEF in he last quarter, for supply of the same in the next 3-6 months. It successfully delivered the first consignment of EasyFive to UNICEF during the quarter under review.

For the first nine months of 2008-09, Panacea reported heavy net loss of Rs 28.88 crore as against a net profit of Rs 108.25 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales declined by 14 per cent to Rs 545.79 crore from Rs 634.92 crore. Its earning per share worked out to negative Rs 4.33 as against positive Rs 16.42 in the last period.