Panacea Biotec has suffered a heavy setback during the first quarter ended June 2011 and its net profit declined sharply by 49 per cent to Rs.16.72 crore from Rs.32.55 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net sales also moved down by 13 per cent to Rs.220.99 crore from Rs.253.90 crore. Due to lower profit its earnings per share declined to Rs.2.73 from Rs.4.87 in the last period.


The company’s formulation segment grew by 9 per cent registering net turnover of Rs.85 crore as compared to Rs.77.7 crore. The export of pharmaceutical formulations grew by 23 per cent during the quarter under review. The vaccines segment registered net turnover of Rs.135.9 crore as compared to Rs.176.2 crore. The primary reason for decline in turnover is lower OPV sales in Q1FY12 as compared to same period of previous year due to Demand shift of TOPV from the customer and postponement of some of the BOPV shipment to subsequent quarters. However, we expect to meet up the above short falls in subsequent quarters of current financial year.


The decline in net turnover during Q1FY12 also resulted in 14 per cent decline in the EBITDA which stood at Rs.53 crore as compared to Rs.61.4 crore during Q1FY11. The company registered PBT of Rs.20.7 crore as compared to Rs.35.4 crore during Q1FY11. The decline in PBT is due to higher interest cost during the quarter under review. The company expects that the current shortfall in revenue and profits will be covered up during subsequent quarters of current financial year.


Dr. Rajesh Jain, joint managing director said, “The nature of our business does not allow uniform result and growth on quarterly basis. It is more rational to measure the performance on yearly basis .There are lot of initiative the company has taken to push operational efficiency in the current financial year in both sales & marketing and operations to ensure sustainable growth year on year.”


During the quarter under review the company has launched several new products including TecPara (paracetamol IP 500mg); Nimulid ER for pain management, Fotizo Powder Protein for Cancer Patients, Stamicar to provide energy to Heart Muscles; Febarto for Hyperuricemia etc.


The company is setting up a formulation facility at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh with an investment of around Rs.50 crore for manufacturing anti-cancer products including the recently launched PacliALL. This facility is expected to be commercialized by March 2012 thereby enabling the Company to extend the current 100 per cent tax exemption for another period of 5 years.