Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has achieved satisfactory growth during the second quarter ended September 2007. The consolidated net profit increased by 17.2 per cent to Rs 218.55 crore from Rs 186.42 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company's consolidated net sales also surged by 24.6 per cent to Rs 667.90 crore from Rs 536.19 crore. The earning per share, after considering a rise in equity capital, worked out to Rs 11 as against Rs 10 in the last period.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman and managing director, said, "We have had a strong half year, powered by growth across all segments of our business: solid domestic growth, a fundamentally strong US generics business, growth in all international markets. Recent US FDA approvals with marketing exclusivities for our products demonstrate the quality of our intellectual property, now increasingly visible in our patent challenges".

The formulation sales moved up by 33.9 per cent to Rs 619.77 crore and that of bulk drugs declined by 26.4 per cent to Rs 73.97 crore. The domestic sales increased by 26.3 per cent to Rs 393.26 crore from Rs 311.39 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The domestic formulation sales reached at Rs 371.96 crore from Rs 283.42 crore. However, the domestic sales of bulk drugs declined to Rs 21.07 crore from Rs 27.83 crore. The company's exports went up by 19.2 per cent mainly on account of surge in exports of formulations which rose by 38 per cent to s 247.81 crore from Rs 179.59 crore.

The company continues to retain its number one slot and increase market share with psychiatrists, neurologists, cardiologists, diabetologists, ophthalmologists and orthopedicians. The company launched 23 new product during the first half.

Sun Pharma's US based subsidiary Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories achieved 46 per cent growth in sales to US$ 41.4 million during the second quarter of 2007-08. Its net profit went up by 100 per cent to $ 4.6 million. Between Sun Pharma and Caraco, 16 more ANDAs corresponding to 13 products were approved during the first half year. With this, 87 ANDAs representing 71 products await US FDA approval. The company's R&D expenditure increased by 19 per cent to Rs 71.31 crore from Rs 59.93 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. This translates into 11 per cent of net sales for the quarter. A cumulative 92 DMF applications made for API with 45 approvals so far.

For the first half ended September 2007, the company's consolidated net sales and net profit increased by 23.6 per cent and 22.7 per cent to Rs 1295 crore and Rs 445.74 crore respectively.