Panacea forms JV with Refana to develop, manufacture Covid-19 vaccine

Panacea Biotec, a New Delhi-based vaccine maker, has formed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Nasdaq-listed Refana to develop, manufacture, and market a potential cure for the virus.

Panacea’s shares jumped 20 per cent on Wednesday, closing at Rs 202.8 on the BSE. The firm is set to make 500 million doses of the vaccine, which will then be supplied to the JV (based in the Republic of Ireland). This will be a wholly inactive virus-based vaccine, which, according to Managing Director Rajesh Jain, is a robust an “time-tested technology”.

“We chose this over others because it is a robust, time-tested technology,