Panacea inks vaccine supply pact with Netherlands firm

Panacea Biotec has signed a collaboration agreement with the Netherlands Vaccin Instituut (NVI) to source bulk inactivated polio vaccines (IPV).

IPV supplied by Netherlands Vaccin Instituut would be used by Panacea Biotec in the manufacture of finished IPV, as well as a number of IPV based combination vaccines.

Panacea Biotec would register the products both in India and across the globe, except for Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Rajesh Jain, joint managing director, Panacea Biotec said, "The estimated demand of IPV is around 150 million doses and is likely to increase to 800 million doses by 2011 depending upon various scenarios. The expected market size is around US$ 800 million to 1 billion. This collaboration will substantially enhance Panacea Biotec's impact, scale and size of business".