Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, one of India's largest pharmaceutical company which manufactures and markets branded generic pharmaceuticals, bulk substances and intermediates, today reported a 50 percent rise in profits in the last quarter of 2000.

The Board of Directors of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited at their meeting held today approved the unaudited results for the quarter and the year ended December 31, 2000. The company, which has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliance, has business operations in over 22 countries and manufacturing operations in six countries.

The company achieved a major milestone by crossing the half way mark towards its 2004 global sales target of US $ 1 billion, with global sales for the year 2000 at US $ 502 million.

Sales of the company grew 14.8 percent QoQ and 11.7 percent YoY to Rs 4785 mn and Rs 17418 mn respectively. Earnings before tax (and before technology licensing income) grew 54.3 percent QoQ and 17.2 percent YoY.

R&D expenditure was Rs 154 mn for the quarter and Rs 594 mn for the year representing an increase of 24.5 percent YoY. Profit after tax increased by 50.5 percent at Rs 483 mn for the quarter and was lower by 8.1 percent at Rs 1809 mn for the year essentially due to the absent technology licensing income this year.

The revenue growth was driven by 16.8 percent QoQ growth in domestic sales (12.2 percent YoY), 21.7 percent QoQ growth in formulation exports (26.3 percent YoY) and 2.8 percent QoQ growth in API exports (0.3 percent YoY) with respective revenues closing the year at Rs 9,282 mn, Rs 3,847 mn and Rs 4,289 mn respectively.

The quarter saw Ranbaxy's entry into the oral anti-diabetes segment in the domestic market, which followed up on the successful launches of the COX-II inhibitors in previous quarters. Over the year, the company launched 15 new products in India, the majority of which were in the chronic and lifestyle disease segments.

Annual growth of formulation exports was driven by USA reflecting an increase of 73 percent, Asia Pacific 39 percent and Middle East 33 percent. Global dosage from revenues grew 21 percent YoY to constitute a 71 percent share of the global revenues (up from 66 percent in the previous year). This growth incorporates early initiatives on optimization of certain business models in some of the geographies such as India, China and the CIS. The underlying strength of FY 2001 revenues is expected to further benefit from completion of these initiatives over the year.

The US growth was supported by the launch of eight products during the year. The company received eight ANDA approvals during the year with cumulative approvals reaching 24. With 12 ANDAs filed in 2000, the number of ANDAs pending approval from the US FDA stood at 15 as at end December 2000. In addition, the company has access to other ANDAs through in-licensing and brand acquisitions.

The company made its entry into the 3rd and 8th largest pharmaceutical markets during the year - Germany and Brazil.

In Germany, the company acquired Basics Gmbh, the Generics division of BayerAG. The company proposes to expand the existing product mix by addition of products from its own pipeline. Ranbaxy currently holds approvals for 25 molecules in the EU specifically for Germany and has further 6 molecules under approval.

In Brazil, a majority-held joint venture was established which received approvals for 16 generic products. These were launched in this quarter along with a branded antibiotic product. With further approvals in the pipeline, this market is expected to spearhead Ranbaxy's growth into Latin America.

The company's emphasis on innovative research programs comprising of Drug Discovery Research and Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) continues in full force.

In Drug Discovery, the company has moved ahead with clinical phase II trials of its first BPH molecule (Rbx-2258) and also taken steps to initiate clinical phase I trials in UK in the current quarter. The IND for the anti-asthma molecule (Rbx-4638) still awaits DCGI permission to initiate clinical trials phase I. Besides these, two more compounds in the anti infective and urology areas are in pre clinical stages.

In the NDDS program, the company has developed 4 platform technologies so far and is working on a number of products based on these. It is also actively working towards rapid expansion of its collaborative research with overseas research institutions and academia.

The IND for USA in respect of Ciprofloxacin once-a-day formulation was filed by the licensee BayerAG with the US FDA in December 2000.

Ranbaxy's continued and aggressive focus on R&D has resulted in several approvals in developed markets and significant progress in New Drug Discovery Research.