Dr Reddy's Laboratories, second largest Indian pharma major after Sun Pharmaceuticals with net sales of Rs. 13,200 crore plus, has received setback during the third quarter ended December 2014 on account of higher R&D expenditure and higher tax provisions. The company's consolidated net profit declined by 7.1 per cent to Rs. 575 crore from Rs. 619 crore in the corresponding period of last year despite higher finance income of Rs. 101 crore as compared to Rs. 1.47 crore in the previous period.

Though the overall performance was under pressure, DRL scrip moved up smartly by over 4 per cent or over Rs. 130  in the afternoon session on BSE to Rs. 3,366.

The consolidated net sales improved by 8.7 per cent to Rs. 3,843 crore from Rs. 3,534 crore in the similar quarter of last year. Its sales of global generic went up by 7.8 per cent to Rs. 3,169 crore from Rs. 2,940 crore and that of pharmaceutical services & active ingredients (PSAI) improved by 22.1 per cent to Rs. 799 crore from Rs. 654 crore. However, the sales from proprietary products declined by 18.8 per cent to Rs. 39 crore from Rs. 48 crore and other sales declined by 40.2 per cent to Rs. 24 crore from Rs. 40 crore.

The revenues from North America increased by 4 per cent to Rs. 1680 crore. The company launch limited competition products namely decitabine, azacitidine and divalproex sodium ER and expanding market share of key molecules namely ziprasidone, amlodipine-atorvastatin and sumatriptan auto injector. It launch 6 new products during the quarter ended December 2014. It filed 2 ANDas and 68 ANDAs are pending for approval with US FDA. Out of this 13 are 'First to File' status.

DRL's revenues of global generics from emerging markets improved by 16 per cent to Rs. 860 crore. Its Russian sales declined by 9 per cent to Rs. 400 crore on account of the Rouble depreciation. However,  its sales in other emerging markets went up by 51 per cent to Rs. 460 crore. Its Indian revenue increased by 11 per cent to Rs. 430 crore due to continued focus on new product launches and prescription growth.

R&D expenditure went up by 45 per cent to Rs. 432 crore during the quarter under review from Rs. 298 crore in the last period. This worked out to over 11 per cent of net sales as compared to 8.4 per cent. The company filed 14 DMFs and cumulative number of DMF filings reached at 720 as at the end of December 2014.

For the nine months ended December 2014, DRL's consolidated net sales increased by 12.5 per cent to Rs. 10,948 crore from Rs. 9,736 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net profit improved marginally by 1.7 per cent to Rs. 1,699 crore from Rs. 1,670 crore. EPS was slightly higher at Rs. 99.77 as compared to Rs. 98.21 in the last period. R&D expenditure increased to Rs. 1,230 crore from Rs. 842 crore, a growth of 46 per cent.