The higher exports has enabled the pharma major, Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd to register a 107 per cent growth in net profit during the first quarter ended June 2004. The Company registered a net profit of Rs 2.86 crore for the first quarter against Rs 1.38 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its sales grew by 15 per cent to Rs 44 crore compared to Rs 38.19 crore in the previous period.

V K Mehta, joint managing director said, "Company has posted impressive results despite higher R&D and staff cost related to regulated markets. With exports starting to the regulated markets, Ind-Swift has marked its presence among the top pharmaceutical companies who have capabilities to comply with the stringent regulatory standards. "

The Exports during the quarter saw a jump of 52.5 per cent. The Company has already started exporting its products to the regulated markets besides exports to the soft regulated and non-regulated markets and as per the Company sources a huge expansion is planned to strengthen Company's position in the regulated markets. ISLL has also started the process of regulatory filings -it has already filed process patents for two of its products and is in the process of developing non-infringing processes for around five to six new molecules.

For the quarter under review, the company incurred a total expenditure of Rs 37.65 crore (Rs 34.26 crore). The R&D costs alone have increased by 80 per cent from Rs.0.67 crore to Rs 1.21 crore in the previous quarter, the company said.

The company has provided Rs 2.03 crore towards interest (Rs 1.89 crore), Rs 0.90 crore towards depreciation (Rs 0.61 crore), Rs 0.29 crore towards provision for current taxation (Rs 0.11 crore), Rs 0.53 crore towards deferred taxation (Rs 0.21 crore).

Besides, ISLL has filed its first DMF in the US, while two DMFs have been filed in 14 European countries. Going forward, ISLL expects to file around four to six DMFs every year in the US. Besides developing new molecules and building large capacities for the same, ISLL has also been actively building a channel for marketing the same in the targeted markets.

While the company is already well entrenched in most unregulated markets, it is in talks with several players in Europe and US for supply contracts. ISLL has already tied up with a couple of companies in Europe, while discussions are on with several generic players for the US markets as well for the supply of various products post-patent expiry.