Ranbaxy Laboratories, a leader in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, suffered major setback during the fourth quarter ended December 2005 due to continuing price erosion in its key US market. The company's consolidated net profit after extraordinary income for the quarter declined sharply by 56 per cent to Rs 68.60 crore from Rs 156.50 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Thanks to profit on divestment of its allied business portfolio which generated extra income of Rs 49.10 crore. Thus in reality, the net profit dwindled by almost 88 per cent to Rs 19.5 crore only.

Ranbaxy's consolidated net sales declined by 1.3 per cent during the quarter ended December 2005 to Rs 1405 crore from Rs 1423 crore in the similar quarter of last year. The profit before interest, depreciation, taxation and extra-ordinary items went down by 70.4 per cent to Rs 65.40 crore from Rs 220.60 crore.

Commenting on the financial performance, Dr Brian Tempest, chief mentor and executive vice chairman of the company said, "While 2005 was a tough period, we strongly believe the business outlook will get better in 2006. Our basic belief in the underlying strength and potential of our core business operation does not change."

The company's consolidated sales for the year ended December 2005 declined by 2.2 per cent to Rs 5196 crore from Rs 5313 crore in the previous year. Its net profit came down heavily by 62.9 per cent to Rs 259.10 crore from Rs 698.60 crore in the last period. The earning per share for the year 2005 worked out to Rs 6.94 as against Rs 18.70 in the previous year.

Ranbaxy's US sales declined by 22 per cent to US$ 332 million in 2005 due to fall in prices. However, in Europe it registered a growth of 5 per cent to US$ 202 million and its Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) geographies recorded sales of US$ 340 million, a growth of 11 per cent. Its exports to Germany increased by 20 per cent to $ 31 million and that in France touched to $ 73 million. In UK, its exports declined by 11 per cent to $ 44 million. The company had a day one launch of sertraline in seven EU countries, including larger markets of Germany, France and UK. Ranbaxy saw a positive start in Japan with its first generic product Vogseal gaining market leadership amongst competing generic products.

The company filed 26 ANDA, taking the cumulative number of ANDA filings to 170. It attained approvals for 16 ANDAs during the year which takes the cumulative ANDA approvals to 111, with 59 presently awaiting approvals from the US FDA. Ranbaxy continued to step up its regulatory filings in Europe making a total of 52 National filings in seven EU Reference Member States during the year as against 39 in the last year. During the quarter ended December 2005, Ranbaxy filed 57 new patent applications in India, bringing this figure to total 185 applications filed during 2005.

Ranbaxy recorded a growth of 9 per cent in India during 2005 and its sales reached at US$ 238 million. Emphasis and resource alignment in the chronic therapeutic segments, continued to deliver positive results. Recently the company entered into a co-marketing agreement with Ferring International of Switzerland, for its product Desmopressin.