Indoco's net up at Rs 31 crore

Goa-based pharma major Indoco Remedies registered 24.9-per cent growth in its consolidated revenue to Rs 269.6 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2006, while the consolidated net profit for the same period stood at Rs 31.5 crore, compared with Rs 25 crore in the earlier year, accounting for a growth of 25.8 per cent.

Net profit for the last quarter of FY06 appears lower at Rs 15.9 crore compared with Rs 19.3 crore during the corresponding quarter of the last financial year, mainly on account of VAT-related issues and due to the commissioning of new R&D centre and manufacturing facility at Baddi.

Indoco is focusing on exports to the regulated markets and entering the US market in the niche ophthalmology segment for business growth.

In FY06, the company received USFDA approval for its sterile ophthalmic preparations facility at Goa, which will facilitate the production and export of the Company's ophthalmic preparations to the US.

The pharma giant has signed agreements with two generic companies in th US and will supply products from the Goa facility. The company is looking at filing a seven abbreviated new drug applications by December 2006. The market size of the products aggregates to $1.1 billion.

The exports to regulated markets of Europe grew 76 per cent in FY06. Indoco has also strengthened its active pharma ingredient (API) business by acquiring La Nova Chem's API manufacturing facility and starting an API R&D centre at Navi Mumbai.

The new formulations facility at Baddi, an excise and tax free area, got fully operational in April, 2006 and will boost the company's bottom line.

Commenting on the annual and fourth quarter results, chairman and managing director, Suresh Kare said, "With the infrastructure of a complete solution provider in place and strong business growth, Indoco is ready to leap to become a global player. In FY06, we focused on building our capabilities."

Going forward, we will leverage our capabilities to increase business from the contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) and generic space businesses."