Zydus Cadila achieved impressive performance during the year ended March 2004 and its net profit moved up by 87 per cent to Rs 143 crore from Rs 76.6 crore in the previous year. Its sales crossed Rs 1000-crore market and touched to Rs 1172.3 crore as against Rs 1028.20 crore in the previous year.
During the year, the company registered a healthy growth in domestic as well as export front. Its domestic formulations sales went up by 12 per cent (as against the total market growth of 6.5 per cent) and export business increased by a whopping 62 per cent as compared to the previous year.
Profit before interest depreciation and tax (PBIDT) increased to Rs 249 crore, up by 29.5 per cent on year to year basis. Despite substantial increase in R&D expenditure, the PBDIT margins moved up by 250 basis points. The various cost optimization initiatives undertaken by the company, income from its joint venture, and higher sales led to the increase in PBIDT.
Taking stock of the company’s growth in operations the board of directors have recommended a dividend of 120 per cent (Rs 6 per share of Rs 5 each).
The company moved ahead with its plans for both the U.S. and the European markets. It launched Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., to cater to the formulation generic market. The company had earlier set up Zydus Healthcare LLC to market APIs in the US market. Supporting its plans to launch generics in the US from July 2005, the company filed 12 ANDAs during the year. This is the largest number of filings by an Indian pharma company in the very first year and it plans to launch 16-18 more in 2004-5. The company also increased its DMF pipeline to 12 DMFs.
The company, which has created base in France for its European operations, will be launching generics in France, early this year. In its first overseas acquisitions, the Company had acquired Alpharma France in 2003-04 and the operations at Zydus France SAS, as the company is now known, have been streamlined.
The company also entered into in-licensing agreements with global pharma majors such as Schering AG and Boehringer Ingelheim, making it a preferred partner for marketing their innovator products in India.
Driving growth through new products, the company launched 69 products during the year. Seizing the first mover advantage the Company launched blockbusters like Nucoxia (pain management), Zytanix and Agrammed (Cardiovascular) and Narebox (antidepressant). Leveraging its NDDS capabilities, the company launched Zyrof in injectable form, Ocid as QRS and Neoloridin as Rapitabs. New products from German Remedies division included Naturogest, Progynova and Enew (women’s healthcare) and Forair (respiratory). On the API front, several having complex manufacturing processes such as Etoricoxib, Rosuvastatin, Tadalafil and Duloxetine were launched.
During the year company filed 31 patent applications in various research disciplines like medicinal chemistry, Non Infringing Process Research, Biotechnology and NDDS.