A Pharmabiz study of India's top 15 domestic pharmaceutical companies during quarter ended December, 2006 found that their spends have taken a big stride. Dr Reddy's R&D expenditure increased to Rs 83.20 crore from Rs 62.80 crore and that of Lupin and Sun Pharma's increased to Rs 31.6 crore and Rs 42.31 crore from Rs 27.5 crore and Rs 35.01 crore respectively. However, Ranbaxy has reduced its R&D expenditure to Rs 119.77 crore during the quarter ended December 2006 from Rs 123.15 crore. Nicholas Piramal, Torrent Pharma and Alembic also pushed their R&D expenditure to Rs 21 crore, 18.82 crore and Rs 11.60 crore during the quarter under review.

The filing of ANDAs and DMFs during the quarter ended December 2006 shown better trend. Ranbaxy filed 27 ANDAs and received 10 approvals during the quarter and its cumulative total reached at 197 with 76 awaiting approvals. DRL filed 5 ANDAs and received approval for 4 ANDAs. Its total reached at 58. Sun Pharmaceutical, with its US subsidiary received 31 approvals and 61 are in the pending list. Cadila filled 44 ANDAs and received approval for 18 and Orchid filed 34 ANDAs with approval for 18 during the quarter.

Sun Pharmaceuticals filed 76 DMFs in US and received approval for 39 till the end of December 2006. DRL filed 15 DMFs in USA and 3 in Canada with total pending of 101 DMFs. Orchid filed 39 DMF and Glenmark filed 6 DMFs during the quarter.

Thus the leading companies are moving fast in the domestic as well as international markets and set to give tough time to world giants. With large investments in R&D, expansion of cGMP facilities, higher filing of ANDAs and DMFs, and ability to offer cost effective quality products, the Indian companies are set to achieve better performance in the coming years with higher returns.