Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, a Rs.4100
crore plus pharma company, has posted better performance during the
second quarter ended September 2010. Its consolidated net profit
increased by 11 per cent to Rs.503.65
crore from Rs.453.81 crore in the
corresponding period of last year. The net sales and other income moved
up by 15.6 per cent to Rs.1370 crore from Rs.1185 crore. Its earnings per share worked
out to Rs.24.3 from Rs.21.9.

Its
sales of branded prescription formulation in India increased by 36 per
cent to Rs.641 crore and sales of Caraco
Pharma, a US subsidiary, up by 25 per cent to US$ 98 million. However,
it incurred a loss of US$ 1.5 million. . Its EBDITA reached at Rs.522.63 crore as against Rs.513.67 crore in the corresponding period of
last year. The company holds 3.7 per cent market share in the highly
competitive pharma market. It launched 11 key products during he quarter
under review. The consolidated R&D expenditure reached at Rs.76 crore, or 5.6 per cent of income from
operations.

For the first half ended September 2010, Sun Pharma
posted net profit growth of 72.9 per cent to Rs.1068
crore from Rs.618 crore in the similar
period of last year. Its net sales jumped by 40.4 per cent to Rs.2761 crore from Rs.1973
crore.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman and managing director, said, “As
witnessed in the first six months of this fiscal, our base business
continues to progress well in line with our expectations. Pace of
product approvals remains good. While the business is set to deliver the
expected growth as announced at the beginning of the year, the larger
task ahead is revitalizing Taro's business. Even as we handle this and
the challenges related to GMP compliance, we expect to emerge as a much
stronger company with an expanded product portfolio and a larger
international presence.”

Sun Pharma and Caraco received approval
for 94 products. In the July-September quarter, Sun filed 2 ANDAs with
US FDA. With this, in the first half, ANDAs for a total of 6 products
have been filed. It received approvals for 10 products during first
half. Taro brings a pipeline of 150 filings, of which ANDAs for 123 are
approved and the balance 27 pending approval. Most of these ANDAs are in
the dermatology and paediatric space.