Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) has posted a net profit of Rs 31.15 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2002 as compared to Rs 18.21 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal. Total Income (net of excise) has increased from Rs 192.89 crore in JQ-01 to Rs 242.07 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2002.
NPIL registered gross sales at Rs. 268.17 crore for quarter I ended June 30, 2002, up 20 per cent over the corresponding period for the previous year.
Profits before tax were up 85 per cent to Rs. 40.15 crore, reflecting an all round improvement on several operational parameters. Earnings Per Share for the current quarter grew by 71 per cent from Rs. 4.79 to Rs. 8.20.
Nicholas Piramal, together with its joint ventures, continued to maintain its second rank in domestic formulations as per ORG. The company also enjoys first rank in the cardiovascular segment (CVS), post-acquisition of the pharma business of ICI India Ltd. in March 2002.
"The first quarter pf FY 2002-03 has seen Nicholas Piramal India Ltd. reap considerable benefits of the strategies and restructuring plans that were implemented in the last financial year, as is evidenced from the increased margins. The rationalization of the product portfolio creating a cohesive and sustainable brand basket that addresses profitable therapeutic areas (TAs) with future potential is showing distinctive results, as are the far reaching changes that the company has made in its field force and marketing," said Ajay Piramal, chairman, NPIL.
The results for the quarter ended June 30, 2002 are not strictly comparable with the figures of the corresponding period of the previous year as the current quarters figures include the operation of pharma division of ICI India Limited acquired by the company in March 2002.
Three new products were launched by the company during the quarter under review - Monti (montelukast) an anti-asthma drug, and LMVX (low-molecular weight enoxaparin) and Tenodipin (amiodipine + atenolol) in the cardio-vascular segment (CVS).
The company's formulations business grew 20 per cent over the previous corresponding quarter to Rs. 203 crore, while diagnostics grew 27 per cent to Rs. 19 crore. Operating margin on net sales improved form 18.3 per cent in Q I 2001-02 to 20.1 per cent in the quarter under review. Material cost has declined to 49 per cent during the quarter under review from 49.8 per cent in the previous comparable quarter while staff cost has similarly declined from 11.6 per cent to 10 per cent. Human resources have been allocated in greater proportion to marketing and research from manufacturing. Field staff numbers are up from 1572 to 1637 while R&D staff numbers are up to 137 from 120. However, total employee strength is down from 3962 in Q I 2001-2002 to 3453 during the quarter under review.
Nicholas Piramal has also filed its first patent for its own NCE (New Chemical Entity) - an anticancer molecule NP102 in India and the USA and will file a Paris Convention Treaty (PCT) patent application soon. The new molecule is a cycling-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) inhibitor. The compounds are being sent to the USA for further toxicology and xenograft testing. These studies will be completed in the next 6 months.
R&D expenditure has increased from Rs. 2.25 crore in the last quarter of the previous year to Rs. 3.46 crore in Q I 2002-03. The focus of basic research is the development of New Chemical Entities in select therapeutic areas. In addition to this oncology compound, development is underway for 4 NCE compounds - cardiovascular (2), diabetes (1) and anti-fungal (1).
The manufacturing activity of the industrial undertaking located at Deonar, Mumbai, has been recently sold by the company.