Panacea picks up 10% in UK firm

Panacea Biotec has picked up 10 per cent stake in its long-term UK-based technology partner Cambridge Biostability (CBL) for £ 1.93 million.

The two companies have also signed a joint venture agreement for production.

As per the agreement, Panacea Biotec is to in-license CBL technology to develop, produce and market a stable liquid version of pentavalent and other combination vaccines for the treatment of diptheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza B (a major cause of bacterial meningitis and pneumonia in children).

The product will not require storage under refrigeration or reconstitution before use.

Following the agreement, Panacea will now begin the Phase I clincial trials of the temperature-stable liquid vaccines using inlicensed CBL technology in India in April 2007.

While the vaccines meant for clinical trials will come from CBL's pilot production plant, Panacea will set up a full fledged production facility in the country to meet global production demands.

Rajesh Jain, joint managing director of Panacea Biotec, said the actual cost involved in the new plant would be finalised within three months. About the rationale behind setting up large production facility before the start of clinical trials, Jain said all vaccines under consideration are already licensed for manufacture in India.

"We are not coming up with new vaccines. We are just making them temperature stable so as to make them transportable without using a cold chain. The proof of concept is ready and animal tests conducted in UK showed that the vaccines produced using temperature stable technology is equally efficacious. We could safely plan scaling up the pilot facility", he said.

Panacea intends to produce the bulk vaccine in its new production unit and transfer it to its existing vaccine manufacturing plants for making the end formulation.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by Panacea Biotec said that CBL's stable liquid technology would remove the need for cold chain, which currently costs around $200 million a year.

"It also extends the shelf life of vaccines thereby saving around $100 million in waste vaccines every year," the statement said.