Panacea Biotec, the Punjab based Rs 270-crore plus vaccines and formulation manufacturing company, notched up impressive performance during the second quarter ended September 2004. Its net sales went up sharply by 176 per cent to Rs 81.02 crore from Rs 21.36 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company earned a net profit of Rs 11.10 crore as against a net loss of Rs 6.69 crore. Thus, its positive earning per share worked out to Rs 1.74 as against a negative EPS of Rs 1.20 in the last period.

Its sales of vaccines touched to Rs 51.08 crore in the quarter ended September 2004 from Rs 0.69 crore and that of formulations reached at Rs 30.87 crore from Rs 28.22 crore. The company launched Heartfelt tablets (natural product for cholesterol management), Willgo Tablets (advance drug delivery system for 24 hour management of osteoarthritis) and Nimuld Safeinject (for management of post-operative pain). Nimulid Safeinject & Willgo have been patented by the company worldwide and are being developed for the introduction in worldwide markets.

The company entered into collaboration with Cambridge Biostability Ltd, UK, for manufacturing of vaccines in India using 'stable liquid technology', which reformulates existing vaccines into ready-to inject stable liquids and will revolutionalize vaccine delivery by eliminating the need for refrigeration. The technology will be developed and commercialised by Panacea for the first time in the world and will save lost of costs associated with maintaining cold chain for distribution of vaccines and the loss caused due to wasted vaccines each year.

The company's sales for the first half ended September 2004 increased by 171 per cent to Rs 179.66 crore from Rs 66.16 crore in the similar period of last year. The company earned a net profit of Rs 19.84 crore as against a net loss of Rs 11.66 crore in the previous period. It received insurance claim of Rs 3.65 crore against recent loss of stock due to fire took place at its warehouse near Delhi. During the quarter ended September 2004, various assets were damaged on account of flood in Lalru, Punjab. However, all the assets were duly insured and the company management does not expect any significant financial loss on this account.