Panacea to market PT Bio's measles vaccine

12 July 2006

Mumbai: Panacea Biotec has entered into an agreement with PT Bio Farma of Indonesia to manufacture and market measles vaccine. Panacea's joint managing director Rajesh Jain and PT Bio's director Marzuki Abdullah signed the agreement in New Delhi, Panacea informed the BSE in a release.

As per the agreement, Panacea will procure bulk vaccine from PT Bio and formulate it into a finished product and supply it in the market.

The vaccine is expected to be commercially ready by end-2007.

Globally, the measles vaccine market is worth around $25-$30 million. In India alone, demand for measles vaccine is estimated at 40 million doses annually.

PT Bio is one of the four measles vaccine manufacturers pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for supply to UN agencies. "This collaboration will help boost Panacea Biotec's revenues and profits besides widening the product range," the press release attributes to Jain.

Panacea is a frontline health management company – raked among top three biotechnology companies in India – involved in research, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, new chemical entities, natural products and vaccines. Its product portfolio covers areas of pain management, diabetes and cardiovascular management, renal disease management, osteoporosis management, anti-tubercular, gastro-intestinal care products and vaccines.

The company's pharmaceutical and vaccine formulation plant in New Delhi has pre-qualification from WHO, for Oral Polio Vaccine. The state-of-the-art vaccine filling facility has an installed capacity of 3.25-million vials per annum.