Ranbaxy Laboratories, a leading Indian pharma company with net sales over Rs 6000 crore, has achieved better performance during the third quarter ended September 2007 with a strong growth in bottomline. The company's consolidated net profit for the third quarter increased by 48 per cent to Rs 207.4 crore from Rs 140.4 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its consolidated net sales, however, increased marginally by 0.7 per cent to Rs 1,652 crore from Rs 1,640 crore. The earning per share on a fully diluted basis worked out to Rs 4.35 as against Rs 3.37 in the last period.
For the nine months period, Ranbaxy's net profit moved up by 80 per cent to Rs 602.3 crore from Rs 334.5 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net sales registered a growth of 11 per cent to Rs 4,840 crore from Rs 4,362 crore. The earning per share for the first nine months reached at Rs 11.10 as against Rs 8.89.
Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO and MD, said, "Our business performance remains strong and we expect this trend to continue for the remaining part of the year. Ranbaxy's consolidation of its strategic stake in Zenotech and its expansion in the emerging high value segments of biosimilars, specialty injectables and Oncology, is opportune and well timed, and will be a key growth driver for the company in the future. The proposed de-merger of our Drug Discovery Research arm will provide greater flexibility and impetus to our Drug Discovery Research Programmes while unlocking significant value or the company and its shareholders.
The company's sales in North America were at US$ 109 million, recording an increase of 11 per cent for quarter and for the nine months period it reached at $ 302 million, a growth of 9 per cent. Its leading brand in the dermatology segment, Sotret, consolidated its market leadership position by almost doubling its market share from 24 per cent in Q3 2006 to 48 per cent for the month of August. Its branded business in the USA gained further momentum with the addition of the recently acquired dermatology product portfolio from BMS.
The company received approval for 10 ANDA during the quarter ended September 2007. It received approvals for hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen tablets, metformin tablets, hydrochlorthiazide tablets, amlodopine besylate tablets, carvedilol tablets and clarithromycin for oral suspension. Ranbaxy announced the commercialization of its first authorized generic product, Isoptin SR, following an acquisition of the product registration from FSC Laboratories, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Ranbaxy's sales in India increased by 15 per cent to $81 million during the Q3 mainly due to growth of 20 per cent by the chronic business and 9 per cent by acute therapy. For the nine months, the India region recorded revenues of $ 225 million, an increase of 19 per cent. It has 18 brands in Top 300 brands of the Industry. The company launched three formulations viz., Roliflo, Tevran and Zivator. Ranbaxy signed an exclusive in-licensing agreement with Sirtex Medical Pvt Ltd, Australia, to promote and market Sirtex's products. Its sales in Asia & CIS region recorded a growth of 12 per cent to $ 139 million.
The company filed 4 ANDAs with the US FDA and received approval for 10 ANDAs taking the cumulative filings, as on date, to 222 with 139 approvals. In the European Union, 8 national filings in 5 Reference Member States (RMS) was made and the company received 13 approvals in 4 RMS. The company received an in-principle approval from the Board to de-merge its Drug Discovery Research operations.