Ipca Labs is all set to enter the South American market in a big way. The company has registered four products (Atenonol, Citrizin, ondansetron, metformin) in Brazil and six products are pending for registration.
"By March 2005, almost 20 products would be filed for registration in the 8- billion dollar Brazil market," says Harish Kamath, company secretary.
The company's Silvasa, Athal and Kandla plants have been approved by ANVISA (Brazil's regulatory authority). "Our plant at Rathlam was inspected by ANVISA and approval is expected soon," Kamath added.
Ipca had incorporated a wholly owned marketing subsidiary in Brazil named Laboratory Ipca Do Brazil Ltda at Sao Paulo in 2002. "Only the marketing is going in Brazil and the products are being manufactured here. Currently, we have no plan to acquire any manufacturing facility in Brazil," Kamath told Pharmabiz.
Ipca is also exporting bulk drugs to almost all South American countries. They company is evaluating markets like Mexico and Venezuela for exporting formulations.
Ipca has been also developing their other SA markets like Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Uruguay. In South America, more than 50 formulations were registered and about 160 are under registration.
"As a part of strengthening our export business, we are trying to capture the African market also. Now we have wholly owned subsidiaries in South Africa (National Druggist Pty Ltd) and Nigeria (Ipca Pharma Nigeria). Two months back, we have opened our non-trade office in Kenya. Our business in Sudan and Yemen are also going well. We had a turn over of 8 crore from South Africa and 10 crore from Nigeria in last year," informed Kamath.
Their new 60-crore formulation plant in SEZ at Pithampur, Indore will be commissioned at the end of 2005. The plant is launching mainly with a view for export.
Ipca has identified few formulation molecules for ANDA filing in US during the next financial year. Their Ratlam bulk drug plant has got US FDA nod recently. US FDA had given approval for APIs -Atenolol, Propanolol Hydrochloride, Hydroxy Chloroquine Sulphate, Chloroquine Phosphate. The company has already registered more than 15 Drug Master Files (DMF's) with US-FDA.
Ipca's Athal plant's 40-crore expansion will be completed in December this year and Ratlam plant was renovated recently for ANVISA approval.
Ipca has 6 overseas offices in countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Myanmar and Venezuela. Ipca's field force promotes its formulation brands in Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Myanmar, Oman, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ukraine, Vietnam and a few other countries.
The 680-crore company has made a 35 per cent growth in its export income in the first quarter ended in June 30. Company's exports amounted to Rs 357.5 crore for the year ended March '04 with registering a growth of 29 per cent.
Meanwhile, in the domestic market Ipca is launching an injectable combination of anti-bacterial with Cephalosporin kind molecules in next month. Three months back, Ipca had launched a novel injectable antibiotic combination of cefotaxime sodium with sulbactam sodium for the first time in the country.
In the first quarter ended June 2004, the company's net profit has declined to Rs 14.69 crore from Rs 17.36 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company's sales, however, improved by 23.9 per cent to Rs 174.38 crore from Rs 140.71 crore.