Mumbai-based RPG Life Sciences is planning to enter the Statin segment, with Pravastatin as its first product. The company has already acquired technical license for manufacturing Pravastatin from a foreign company, said senior company officials.

Pravastatin is used for the treatment of cholesterol and other CVS illnesses. Worldwide statin market is estimated to be $ 20 billion. In Indian only a selected players like Biocon, Ranbaxy, and Lupin manufacture statins.

"We have got definite plans in the statins segment. We will start with Pravastatin and in future would like to enter other statin varieties," said Ramachandran.

For the year ended March 2004, the company's total income stood at Rs 125.40 crore against a total income of Rs 171.41 crore, a year ago. The net loss was brought down to Rs 6.78 crore as against previous year's Rs 26.70 crore.

Cyclosporin, doxorubicin, spironolactone, vitamin B12, are some of the products manufactured by the company.

In an explanation on the decline in sales for the year ended March 2004, the company's chairman Harsh Goenka in the recent Annual General Meeting, said, "While established products like cyclosporin and doxorubicin continued with to be produced with good yields, the stabilisation of production process for spironolactone and Vitamin B12 took more time than envisaged. These resulted in lower sales in the fermentation division through fixed costs continued to be incurred."

Ceftobac, Gatox (antibiotic), Rabee (anti-ulcerant), Valcib (pain management), Aldactone (diuretic), azoran, and arpimune ME (immunosuppressant) are some of the company's major brands.

For the first quarter of the current year, RPG Life Sciences achieved net sales of Rs 32 crore and a profit before tax of Rs 1 crore. For the corresponding period the previous year, RPG realised sales of Rs 29 crore and a loss of Rs 3.50 crore.