Panacea Biotec, a leading vaccine manufacturing company, has received WHO prequalification for its fully liquid innovative combination pentavalent vaccine, EasyFive against five deadly infectious diseases (DTwP + Hep B+ Hib) of early childhood. This feat comes close on heels of Panacea Biotec's pre-qualification by WHO for two other combination vaccines, EasyFour (DTP + Hib) and Ecovac (DTP + Hep B) in January this year.

In a notification, WHO has advised the UN procuring agencies regarding the acceptability of these vaccines worldwide. Panacea Biotec is already a pre-qualified supplier of OPV and hepatitis-B vaccines to UN agendas, a company press release said.

This makes Panacea Biotec as the first Indian company & one of three companies in the world to have been pre-qualified by WHO for a pentavalent vaccine. Pentavalent vaccines are used by UN agencies (UNICEF, PAHO etc.) to vaccinate & save precious lives of millions of children in the developing world.

Panacea Biotec has been playing an important role in immunization through its novel and innovative, world's first fully liquid vaccine with brands such as, 'Easy Four' & 'Easy Five', for over 3 years. It has partnered with WHO & UNICEF' with a mission of supporting the cause of maximising coverage of vaccines under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) for more than a decade.

Developing countries would need a combination vaccine to the tune of around 300 Mb doses annually. The combined demand of all combination paediatric vaccines worldwide was valued at USD 600 million in 2005 and estimated to grow up to USD 1.6 billion by 2012. Pentavalent vaccine market is estimated to cross a mark of $1 billion out of which UN agencies arc likely to procure this vaccine worth more than Rs 1,500 crore (>$ 350Mio), by 2009 itself The WHO prequalification fox Easy Five makes Panacea Biotec a strong contender in this important market segment.

"India is responding to globalization faster than people think. Encouraging innovation from India to develop vaccines for the developing countries is good for the world and will help to reduce the overall costs of healthcare, a cause dose to our heart", said Rajesh Jam speaking on the occasion.

Panacea Biotec inaugurated its ultra modern, green field construction, vaccine production plant at Baddi, HP., with over Rs.100 crore (approx. USD 25 million) investment in September 2007, having capacity of more than I billion doses per annum, to cater to domestic and global.