Biocon Ltd, India's premier biotechnology company, has suffered heavy setback during the first quarter ended June 2008 mainly due to absence of licensing income and impact of currency loss. The company's consolidated net profit declined by 72 per cent to Rs 15.0 crore from Rs 53 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company provided Rs 25.5 crore for mark to market loss during first quarter as against nil in the last period.

Biocon's consolidated sales declined by 3 per cent to Rs 263.9 crore from Rs 270.8 per cent. Its sales of biopharmaceuticals improved by 9 per cent to Rs 221.2 crore from Rs 203.4 crore in the last period. Its contract research income declined by 2 per cent to Rs 42.7 crore from Rs 43.4 crore. There was no income from enzymes during the period under review as against Rs 24 crore in the last period. Branded formulations encompassing cardio-diabetes, nephrology and oncology delivered good growth.

Syngene had difficult quarter due to impact of currency loss combined with operational delays resulted in a Rs 6 crore decline in operating profit. However, Clinigene is now fully operational at its new facility and is on track to deliver 100 per cent growth in this fiscal.

Commenting on the performance, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, said, "Biocon's Q1 FY09 performance has been unfortunately impacted by rupee volatility which has seen us make a mark to market provision of Rs 26 crore. We have consciously been conservative in making this provision. I believe that our business fundamentals are robust, which is well demonstrated by the strong profit growth in our core biopharmaceutical business. The absence of licensing income this quarter has had a disproportionate impact on profitability. However, we are confident that licensing income will be significant this fiscal. We are particularly encouraged by the good growth demonstrated by our branded formulations where several brands have attained high rankings in their product segments in India. Insugen has now garnered an all India market share of over 15 per cent in the vial segment."

"We are making excellent progress on the research front with several programs approaching a licensing phase over the next 2 years, which is expected to provide attractive ROI. We expect the quarters ahead to compensate for the exchange losses booked this quarter and end the year with improved profitability", Mazumdar-Shaw added.