Panacea sets up cancer drug-making unit in Himachal

A Delhi-based pharmaceutical company, Panacea Biotec, has set up a new state-of-the-art cancer drug manufacturing facility at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. The Rs 55-crore facility has an annual production capacity of about 1.2 million vials, and complies with international regulatory standards such as current good manufacturing practice, US Food and Drug Administration and UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, a company statement said.

“Our new facility will enable us to scale up production of our innovative range of anti-cancer products, and offer substantial affordable innovative medicine to consumers at large,” said Rajesh Jain, joint managing director.

The use of oncology products have gone up by 20 per cent in recent years, though the production capacity hasn’t grown correspondingly, said Jain. “We are thus optimistic about contributing to mitigate the supply constraints of oncology products not only in India but also globally,” he said.

Panacea is in the process of registering its range of anti-cancer products in emerging markets and developed markets such as Europe and the US.

India accounts for 7.5 per cent of the total new cases of cancer globally. In India, cervical and breast cancer are the most common, contributing over 26 per cent to the total cases, followed by lung, mouth, pharynx and esophagus cancer.

The oncology market in India is about $186 million (Rs 944 crore), and is expected to reach $693 million (Rs 3,519 crore) by end of 2013, with a compound annual growth rate of 21 per cent.