Panacea Biotec commissions anti-cancer unit in Himachal

Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), March 29 (IANS) Healthcare management company Panacea Biotec has commissioned an oncology unit in this Himachal Pradesh industrial town.

This new manufacturing facility, with an outlay of Rs.55 crore, would entail an annual production capacity of 1.2 million vials, the company's joint managing director Rajesh Jain said Wednesday on the sidelines of the plant's inauguration at Baddi, about 35 km from Chandigarh.

'It will not only enable us to scale up production of anti-cancer products, but also offer substantial affordable innovative medicine to consumers at large,' he said.

Earlier, the company was manufacturing anti-cancer products in its Mumbai facility. 'Now the Baddi facility would cater to the demand both within and outside the country,' Jain added.

The oncology market in India is about $186 million and is expected to reach $693 million by end of 2013 with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 21 percent.

Panacea Biotec, the company with a turnover of Rs.1,130 crore in the last fiscal, is in the process of registering its range of anti-cancer products in Europe and US markets.