Panacea Biotec, the Punjab-based Rs 335-crore plus pharma company, achieved smart growth in profitability during the year ended March 2005. The company’s standalone net profit moved up by 82.8 per cent to Rs 30.06 crore from Rs 16.44 crore in the previous year. The net sales improved by 24.4 per cent to Rs 325.54 crore from Rs 261.62 crore. With the smart improvement in profitability its earning per share of Rs 1 each face value improved to Rs 4.63 from Rs 2.72 in the preceding year. The company declared equity dividend of 150 per cent for the year 2004-’05.

The sales of vaccines increased to Rs 219.91 crore from Rs 149.52 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 47 per cent. However, the sales of formulations declined slightly to Rs 108.50 crore from Rs 112.87 crore. Its revenue from research and development amounted to Rs 0.74 crore as against Rs 0.64 crore in the previous year.

Panacea launched ‘Overcom’ injections for treatment of iron deficiency and ‘Upright’ tablets for pain management during the last quarter of 2004-’05. The company’s joint venture Chiron Panacea Vaccines Pvt Ltd commenced the operations and the JV company is focused on providing new generation combination vaccines and other breakthrough vaccines in India. The commercial production from Baddi unit is likely to commence from September 2005. This ultra-modern formulation plant will be set up as per the US FDA and UK MCA requirements.

Panacea’s consolidated net sales improved to Rs 327.93 crore from Rs 263.34 crore and its consolidated net profit worked out to Rs 27.30 crore as against Rs 16.53 crore in the previous year.