Panacea Biotec, a Rs 850 crore second largest vaccine producer in India, has suffered setback during the year ended March 2008 on account of lower vaccine sales and rupee appreciation. The company's net profit declined by 12.6 per cent to Rs 128.98 crore from Rs 147.64 crore in the previous year. Its net sales also moved down marginally by 0.1 per cent to Rs 841.34 crore from Rs 842.36 crore. With fall in profits, its earning per share nosedived to Rs 19.51 from Rs 23.84 in the last year.

The board of directors has recommended equity dividend of 100 per cent (Re 1 per share) for the year 2007-08, aggregating Rs 6.68 crore. The equity capital increased to Rs 66.8 crore as at the end of March 2008 from Rs 65.8 crore with the of allotment of 10.12 lakh equity of Re 1 each at a premium of Rs 356.57 per share upon conversion of 82 Zero coupon FCCBs aggregating US $8.2 million.

The vaccines sales have declined by four per cent to Rs 647.24 crore from Rs 674.41 crore in 2006-07. However, its formulations sales improved by 18.1 per cent Rs 200.85 crore from Rs 170.02 crore.

Rajesh Jain, joint managing director, said, "The financial year 2007-08 was full of challenges and exciting achievements, Panacea Biotec achieved new milestones by filing 143 patent applications internationally this year, taking the tally to 828 patent applications so far. The company also achieved WHO pre-qualification for its two innovative combination vaccines Easyfour (DPT-Hib) and Ecovac-4 (DPT-HepB). The company has also become market leader in the private Indian combination vaccine market, with 45 per cent market share. The formulations segment of the company registered 18 per cent growth which is higher than industry growth of 14 per cent as per ORG IMS. The company has become number one in the field of organ transplantation. Despite over 10 per cent increase in rupee against US$, we have been able to match the top line with last year.