Panacea Biotech, one of the largest vaccine producer in the country, has had a distressed one year. While the goings were smooth in the first half of the year, it was in the second half that its troubles began.

In July 2011, following a routine site audit by a World Health Organisation (WHO) team, its DTP-based combination and monovalent hepatitis B vaccines were delisted from WHO's list of pre-qualified vaccines. Sure enough, the company went into the red next quarter onwards.

In the September and December 2011 quarter, it reported losses of about Rs 34 crore and Rs 72 crore respectively. In the December quarter, its sales of vaccines declined to Rs 69 crore from Rs 212 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. This was driven mainly by the delisting of the pentavalent vaccine, which may help put the severity of the development in perspective.

The company has reported losses of about Rs 89 crore (profit of Rs 92 crore last year) even in the nine-month period. While it has since taken several corrective and preventive measures, its panacea will lie in getting a re-listing of its pentavalent vaccine in the list of WHO pre-qualified vaccines soon.

That in January this year the Income Tax Department conducted searches at its premises for alleged evasion of taxes worth crores did not help its cause either.

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