Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharmaceutical company with consolidated net sales of Rs 6875 crore, has achieved marginal improvement in financial performance during the second quarter ended June 2008. The company's consolidated net profit remained almost stagnant at Rs 161 crore, excluding the foreign exchange gains or losses on translation. Its net sales increased by 13 per cent to Rs 1830 crore from 1624 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

Commenting on the performance, Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO and managing director, said, "Most striking has been our path-breaking deal with Daiichi Sankyo which I believe will substantially alter the rules of the game and re-define the global pharmaceutical landscape. We have the early mover advantage and are best placed to gain from the complementary strengths of both partners in capitalizing on the opportunities available across the entire pharmaceutical value spectrum. We expect performance to be stronger as we move through the rest of the year."

The company's consolidated sales improved by 11 per cent to US$ 440 million during the quarter under review. Developed market led by USA and Canada, contributed 40 per cent to global sales and grew by 12 per cent whereas the emerging markets accounted for 53 per cent to global sales and recorded a growth of 9 per cent. The API business recorded a growth of 31 per cent contributed to 7 per cent of sales. International sales of dosage forms increased by 12 per cent to $318 million for the second quarter of 2008 and was 72 per cent of global sales.

The company's sales in the US & Canada increased by 18 per cent to $120 million. USA recorded sales of $106 million, a growth of 12 per cent. Volume growth, contribution from new products introduced during the year and a robust performance from the branded business led to an overall improved performance. The overall market share in the US generic market was 10.3 per cent. The branded business continued to register a robust growth momentum, with Sotret maintaining its lead market standing and a strong performance coming from the dermatology products basket that was successfully re-launched post acquisition from Bristol Myers Squibb last year. With the expansion of the sales force, the targeted doctor coverage for Sotret has increased to 85 per cent.

The sales in India were at $79 million, at similar levels to those of the corresponding previous period. The company launched 26 new products across several therapies like antibiotics, cardiovascular, asthma, orthopaedics and gastrointestinal.

During the quarter ended June 2008, Ranbaxy entered into a strategic product development agreement with Merck & Co., Inc., in the therapeutic area of anti infectives. Both Ranbaxy and Merck will work together to develop clinically validated anti-bacterial and anti-fungal drug candidates.

The company filed 2 ANDAs including one PEPFAR filing with the US FDA and received approval for 4 regular ANDAs. This takes the cumulative filings to date to 239 ANDAs with 146 approvals. During the quarter, in the European Union, the company made 3 national filings in 2 reference member states (RMS) and received 10 approvals in 5 RMS. With respect to this anti-malaria molecule, RBx 11160 phase II studies with the combination product have been completed in Thailand and India. Currently, there are three ''in-house' compounds in the pre-clinical'' development stage.

For the first half ended June 2008, Ranbaxy's net sales increased by 8 per cent to Rs 34,527 crore from Rs 31,882 crore and its net profit moved up by 6 per cent to s 2,804 crore as against Rs 2650 crore in the corresponding half of the last year.