Panacea Biotec has said that a team from the World Health Organisation (WHO) will visit its Delhi formulation plant in September as a part of the company’s efforts to resolve the issue of delisting of three of its vaccines from WHO’s pre-qualification list.
“Our communication with WHO is progressing very nicely and they have said that they are going to visit our Delhi formulation plant between September 6-8. Once that audit is over, we will analyse the output of the visit and will start discussing the way forward,” Panacea Biotec Joint Managing Director, Mr Rajesh Jain, told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event here today.
‘Pre-qualification’ is a process under which drug companies have to fulfil certain WHO-stipulated conditions to become eligible to supply vaccines to UN procurement agencies globally.
Earlier this month, the company had said its diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus based combination vaccines Easyfive, Ecovac4 and EnivacHB have been delisted from the WHO’s list of pre-qualified vaccines.
“We believe that the audit of the Delhi formulation plant will have a significant impact, as a lot of confidence will be generated through it,” Mr Jain said.
The company is also set to launch its pharmaceutical products in Germany and the US in the current fiscal.
“The launch should be in September in Germany and after that, we will launch our products in the US,” he said.
Panacea Biotec will also open an anti-cancer formulation plant in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, in February 2012.
“The construction is in full swing and the investment will be around Rs 54 crore,” Mr Jain added.
Meanwhile, the company’s scrip was being quoted at Rs 141.50 per share in the afternoon trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 3.28 per cent from the previous close.