Panacea Biotech hits upper circuit on tie-up with Refana for COVID-19 vaccine

Panacea Biotech Limited locked in upper circuit post-announcing its collaboration with Refana Inc. USA for the global development, manufacturing and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The two companies aim to make the COVID-19 vaccine widely accessible worldwide, serving equitably through a joint venture company based in Ireland. Both the companies will undertake the sales and distribution of the vaccine in their respective territories.

In line with the partnership terms, Panacea Biotec will be responsible for product development and commercial manufacturing, with the Joint Venture undertaking clinical development and regulatory submissions across the world.

As informed by the management of Panacea Biotech, this association targets at manufacturing over 500 million doses of the vaccine, with over 40 million doses anticipated to be available for delivery early next year. Whole inactivated viral vaccines have a greater probability of being safe and effective, given their long history and better understanding of their mechanism of action.

The management of Refana Inc. further stated that by utilizing proven models of viral pathogenesis and parallel conduct of multiple pre-clinical and clinical studies, it can significantly accelerate the vaccine development and approval process for its tried and true whole inactivated viral vaccine approach.

Panacea Biotech is a biotechnology company focusing on developing pharmaceutical medicines for chronic diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, organ transplantation, pain management, oncology and gastroenterology and vaccines for common morbid conditions such as pneumonia, hepatitis B, polio, dengue and tetanus among others.

In the December 2019 quarter, Panacea’s revenue rose 45 per cent YoY to Rs 160.6 crore. The pharmaceutical segment grew 29 per cent YoY while the vaccines segment grew 90 per cent YoY during the quarter.

Panacea Biotech’s stock hit upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 202.80 on Wednesday, from its previous close of Rs 169 on BSE.