Panacea Biotec freezes in 10% upper circuit; stock zooms 101% in 1 month

A combined 2.1 million equity shares of the company had changed hands till 02:50 PM, and there are pending buy orders for nearly 100,000 shares on the NSE and BSE.

Shares of Panacea Biotec were locked in upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 270.60 on the BSE in Monday’s intra-day trade amid heavy volumes in an otherwise weak broader market. In the past one month, the stock of the smallcap pharmaceutical company has zoomed 101 per cent, from the levels of Rs 134.55. 

At 02:49 PM, the BSE Sensex was up 0.35 per cent, as compared to the 0.5 per cent decline in the BSE MidCap and 0.87 per cent fall in the BSE Smallcap index. The average trading volumes on the counter had jumped nearly three-fold. A combined 2.1 million equity shares of the company had changed hands and there are pending buy orders for nearly 100,000 shares on the NSE and BSE.

On August 14, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Panacea Biotec announced the start of the first ever Phase III clinical trial for a dengue vaccine in India. DengiALL is a tetravalent recombinant live attenuated tetravalent candidate vaccine that targets all the four serotypes of Dengue that are prevalent across the world.

Dengue is a major public health concern in India, with the country ranking among the top 30 countries with the highest incidence of the disease.

Panacea Biotec, in its FY24 annual report, had said that the company is committed towards growth of the Indian private market vaccine franchise with additional launches scheduled in the next 18 to 24 months and hopes to introduce NucoVac11 and DengiAll among other products to meet unmet medical needs in 2026, subject to successful completion of the Phase III clinical trials and receipt of requisite regulatory approvals. EasySix (the world's first fully liquid wP-based Hexavalent vaccine) continues to be the market leader.

Panacea Biotec is one of the leading manufacturers of paediatric vaccines and has played a pivotal role in the eradication of Poliomyelitis (Polio) from India and many other countries. Panacea Biotec had been one of the largest suppliers of oral polio vaccines to UNICEF, the Government of India and other developing countries. 

Over more than the past two decades, the company has supplied more than 10 billion doses of polio vaccine in India and developing countries and enabled more than 190 million immunisations by supplying fully liquid wP based combination vaccines.

The Indian vaccine industry has seen a significant increase in demand for vaccines, especially after the sudden outbreak of Covid-19. The government's continued efforts and awareness programs to promote the usage of vaccines has resulted in the public becoming more aware, comfortable and familiar with vaccinations. All this is expected to add to the market growth of the company in future.

The Indian vaccine market is estimated at around Rs 290 billion (approximately $3.5 billion) in 2023. The market is further expected to reach around Rs 996 billion (approximately $12 billion) by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 10-12 per cent in the near future.

The future growth in the Indian vaccine industry will be driven by several factors like government initiatives, population growth, advancements in vaccine technology, government-led immunisation programs, investment support in research and development (R&D) by government funding agencies, increased awareness and access and income levels allowing people to vaccinate their families against deadly diseases, the company said in its FY24 annual report.