Panacea Biotec reports consistent financial results

Panacea Biotec has announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. Commenting on the company's performance, Rajesh Jain, joint managing director, said, "The current financial year is full of challenge for all those companies which are deriving major revenues in foreign currencies particularly in US Dollar, as the domestic currency has appreciated significantly against the US Dollar. Panacea Biotec has registered growth in its forex earnings as well as domestic business both pharma and vaccines, however the impact of growth was nullified by around 10 percent appreciation in the Rupee against the US Dollar during the quarter under review as compared to corresponding quarter of previous year. The current financial year continues to be important and promising for Panacea Biotec. During the current year, the focus would be on timely execution of key projects, initiation of clinical trials of our patented products for European markets, preparation and submission of dossiers for other products for filing in LATAM Markets, EU and the US; and further consolidation of our formulations segment."

The company has registered net turnover of Rs 233.4 crore during the quarter ending June 30, 2007 as compared to Rs 233.4 crore for the corresponding quarter of previous financial year. During the quarter under review, the company's turnover from pharma (formulations) segment grew by 27 percent at Rs 49.8 crore, with the domestic turnover registering 26 percent growth and export turnover growing by 36 percent as compared to corresponding quarter of previous financial year. The pharma turnover grew by 32 percent over the previous quarter as well.

The vaccine segment registered turnover of Rs 183.7 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2007, as compared to Rs 194 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2006. However, the same was partly compensated by way of the price increase considered by the company in various product segments. The vaccines sales to JV company for private Indian market registered 54 percent growth during the quarter under review compared to corresponding quarter of previous year and 21 percent growth over the previous quarter.

"Panacea Biotec is a fundamentally strong company and is poised to enter into the next big league in the coming years. Our investments in new R&D centers will yield result in years to come. The new production facilities will enable us to enter the regulated markets as per schedule. During the quarter under review the company's formulations facility at Baddi became operationally profitable." added Jain.

Panacea Biotec forays into cancer treatment

Panacea Biotec has plans to forays into oncology segment to provide treatment for breast cancer, brain tumor, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostrate cancer andcolorectal cancer. The company plans to launch seven anti- cancer products in the next eight weeks. These drugs will be manufactured by a Mumbai-based company to be sold under the brand name of Panacea Biotec.

Oncotrust would be the new Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of Panacea Biotec with thetotal strength of 50 sales specialists on oncology who would be responsible for marketing the drugs. The aim is to register sales volumes of Rs 15-20 crore in oncology chemotherapy segment in the next three years. The company feels that it would be able to launch novel drug delivery based anti-cancer drug in next 2-3 year period.

"We plan to develop novel and innovative drug delivery systems (NDDS) of the existing anti-cancer molecule. The new research based drug development will take 2-3 years as we need to develop an effective distribution chain and occupy a significant market share in oncology drugs," said Rajesh Jain, joint managing director, Panacea Biotec.

The company also plans to launch its Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) in next three months in the private market and would gradually increase the market share after postpolio eradication program of the Central government.

Goodwin Biotechnology doubles GMP manufacturing space

Goodwin Biotechnology Inc. (GBI) has announce that it will shortly be completing the expansion project it undertook in mid 2006, which nearly doubles the GMP manufacturing space and will include two new stir tank bioreactors sized at 250 Liters and 500 Liters. The expansion also includes relocation, upgrading, and tripling the size of the process development laboratory. This expansion is geared to serve GBI's current and future clients for Phase III and beyond.

GBI, one of the earliest established biological contract manufacturers, was acquired by Wallace Pharmaceuticals, based in Goa. Since that acquisition, GBI has achieved two unprecedented years of profitable growth in 2005 and 2006. For 2005, GBI was named the third fastest growing technology company in South Florida.

The need for expansion has been fueled by organic growth at GBI and by manufacturing partnerships with multiple clients. In 2005, GBI was chosen by multi-billion dollar Menarini Group, based in Italy, to manufacture its Phase III ovarian cancer antibody, a project, which is substantially completed. In October 2006, Caprion Pharmaceuticals of Montreal, Canada (now Thallion Pharmaceuticals) selected GBI as its partner for manufacturing two monoclonal antibodies against Shigatoxins produced by E. Coli infections. Other GBI clients include renowned cancer research institutions, such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. GBI serves numerous other small to mid-size biopharmaceutical companies with their process development and contract manufacturing requirements.

While achieving its second consecutive year of growth and best year ever in 2006, GBI also expanded beyond the shores of the US. GBI opened its Indian subsidiary, Goodwin Biotechnology India Private Ltd in Goa. The Indian subsidiary's prime objective is to bring years of GBI's process development and cGMP manufacturing expertise to the rapidly growing Indian biotechnology industry.

Stephanie Finnegan, CEO, GBI said, "Over the years, we have built a solid team of talented professionals who understand and value the importance of serving each client with excellence. Since the Wallace acquisition, we have been provided the capital for growth that we have sought for several years. Together with our operations in India, I can see no limit to the growth of our company and our ability to serve our clients as they scale up to commercial production."

GBI is a fully integrated contract manufacturing organization (CMO) specializing in the cGMP compliant mammalian cell culture of bio-therapeutics for pre-clinical through Phase III clinical trials. GBI offers services, which range from cell banking through cGMP manufacturing.

GBI has announced the successful completion of a strategic co-operation for the manufacturing of the monoclonal antibody Abagovomab with Menarini Group, of Florence, Italy. This antibody is the active principle of the Menarini Group's groundbreaking ovarian cancer vaccine, now in phase III clinical studies around the world.

GBI has also entered into an agreement with Neogenix Oncology Inc. for process development and manufacturing of Neogenix's first therapeutic product, NPC-1C, a novel monoclonal antibody intended for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. On successful completion of this phase of development, and with FDA approval, Neogenix will begin Phase I and Phase II trials of the product, which are currently planned for the first half of 2008.

Avesthagen launches Avesta Good Earth

Avesta Good Earth, the consumer foods division of Avesthagen, displayed its new brand identity while launching a slew of consumer products in a completely new design and packaging.

The company has further strengthened its product portfolio by launching a complete new range of Muesli Bars. With this launch, the Avesta Good Earth product portfolio comprises the Muesli bars, Good Earth Muesli and Whole Wheat Crackers. The launch of Good Earth Muesli Bars is an attempt to raise familiarity of Muesli among consumers while encouraging healthy snacking habits.

Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder, vice chairperson and MD of Avesthagen, said, "Consumer health foods is an exciting and fast growing category with a big growth potential. We have extensively studied the market and our product development team has created products with variants that will hold tremendous appeal to the Indian consumer. It is also the beginning of a new chapter for Avesthagen which would be dedicated to solving the people-health-food imbalance in the society."

Sandip Dang, CEO, Avesta Good Earth, said, "The new brand will address the need to maintain healthy living through healthy food. Avesta Good Earth is committed to promoting good health by combining nutrition and taste in all its offerings".

Hester records Rs 21.83 crore turnover

Ahmedabad-based Hester Pharmaceuticals, an ISO 9001:2000 certified company manufacturing poultry vaccines, has registered a turnover of Rs 21.83 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007, as against Rs 20.14 crore for the previous year. It registered a growth of 16.17 percent in net profit on a 8.45 percent growth in sales over last year. The growth was restricted due to 100 percent utilization of production capacity during the financial year. The expanded capacity (increasing from 1.2 billion doses to 4.8 billion doses) which went onstream in March 2007 will show its effect in the current financial year. Hester will commence production for additional vaccines under various international licensing agreements. It foresees a sizeable growth in its sales of poultry vaccines too in the current financial year. The board of directors has recommended a dividend of Rs 2 per equity share of Rs 10 each (20 percent), for the financial year 2006-2007.

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