Panacea Biotec, a Punjab based biotech major, achieved excellent growth in profitability during the first quarter ended June 2006. Its net profit went up sharply by 132.5 per cent to Rs 49.76 crore from Rs 21.40 crore in the corresponding period of last year. With strong growth in profits, its EPS moved up to Rs 8.51 from Rs 3.55.

The company's net sales for the first quarter reached at Rs 233.39 crore from Rs 159.20 crore, a growth of 46.6 per cent. The revenue from vaccines increased by 56.9 per cent to Rs 193.99 crore from Rs 123.64 crore, contributing over 83 per cent to its total revenue. Formulations sales improved by 11 per cent to Rs 39.26 crore from Rs 35.42 crore and income from R&D amounted to Rs 0.30 crore as against Rs 0.19 crore.

Panacea commissioned its new formulation facility at Baddi during quarter under review. The company also commissioned biopharmaceuticals R&D centre at New Delhi and new Drug Discovery R&D centre at Mohali, Punjab. Due to this its interest cost gone up by 176 per cent to Rs 7.79 crore from s 2.82 crore and depreciation provision increased to Rs 6.94 crore from Rs 3.97 crore. Further, it started formulation facility for oft gelatin capsules during July 2006.