The Hindu Business Line : Panacea Biotec scouts for overseas acquisition

"We have been evaluating several opportunities. However, we will settle for an arrangement that offers a symbiotic relationship. It could be either a pharmaceutical or a vaccine company, but we are looking for one that has manufacturing infrastructure as well as distribution and marketing reach," said Mr Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director, Panacea Biotec. Having invested Rs 17 crore for a 10 per cent equity stake in its partner Cambridge Biostability last December, the vaccine maker also expects to announce licensing tie-ups similar to the one that it has with the UK-based company in the next 12 months.

"We are already in talks with a few companies for our products in the pain management, gastro intestinal and organ transplant category," said Mr Jain.

According to Mr Jain, although the company has spent a good part of the $100 million raised in February 2006 in expanding and building new manufacturing facilities, it has performed consistently well over the last three years and done good business.

Enough cash

"We have some cash accumulation that we could use, but depending on the size of target finalised we could also consider raising money again," said Mr Jain. In 2008, the company also hopes to reach new markets in Western Europe and Northern America.

Panacea has reported a year-on-year growth of more than 140 per cent in net profits at Rs 146.81 crore for fiscal ended March 31, 2007. Early this year, Merill Lynch International acquired stake in two tranches totalling about 12.68 per cent. Panacea is to build a manufacturing plant at Lalru, Punjab in 2008 for thermostable vaccines and expects to market pentavalent vaccines from mid 2009 with the technology acquired from Cambridge Biostability. The technology promises to increase the efficacy of vaccine programmes by reducing the dependency on cold storage.

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