Alembic Ltd., a Rs 525-crore Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company, has improved its financial performance during the third quarter ended December 2005 and pushed its net profit by 29.5 per cent to Rs 23.91 crore from Rs 18.47 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company's net sales touched Rs 170.81 crore from Rs 146.13 crore, registering a growth of 16.9 per cent. The earning per share improved to Rs 8.63 from Rs 6.87 in the previous period. The company launched twelve products, including line extensions, in its domestic formulation business during the quarter and now spreading its wings to regulatory markets both in respect of API and formulations.

Alembic's gross domestic sales increased by 13.3 per cent to Rs 145.83 crore in the third quarter. The company launched a zero calorie sucralose-based cooking powder under the brand name 'Zero Cook & Bake' during October 2005. It has so far filed 43 DMFs till date, of which nine were in the US.

Its exports sales remained stagnant and improved by only 1.2 per cent to Rs 31.28 crore from Rs 30.92 crore. The export of formulation reached Rs 9.64 crore from Rs 8.89 crore and that from APIs amounted to Rs 18.28 crore as compared to Rs 16.29 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.

For the nine months period ended December 2005, Alembic achieved net sales of Rs 494.17 crore as compared to Rs 415.83 crore in the similar period last year. Though its domestic sales increased to Rs 423.94 crore its exports sales declined to Rs 93.05 core from Rs 93.79 crore. The net profit after extra ordinary items improved to Rs 61.42 crore from Rs 45.69 crore, registering a growth of 34.4 per cent. Improved profitability pushed its earning per share to Rs 22.18 from Rs 17.16 in the last period.