Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has posted its best-ever quarterly financials boosted by sales of new generics in the USA, especially its copy of Eli Lilly’s antipsychotic Zyprexa.
The Indian drugmaker says that net income for the third quarter ended December 31 shot up 88% to 5.13 billion rupees (about $105.6 million), while sales climbed 46% to 27.69 billion rupees. Both figures were way ahead of analyst estimates.
Growth was driven by a 120% leap in revenues from North America to 12.83 billion rupees. That rise was helped by copycat versions of Zyprexa (olanzapine), launched in the quarter, plus strong showings for generics of a couple of gastrointestinal drugs – Takeda’s Prevacid/Takepron (lansoprazole) and AstraZeneca’s Losec/Prilosec – and Astellas’ immunosuppressant Prograf (tacrolimus).
The figures were also boosted by sales of Dr Reddy’s generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s bloodthinner Arixtra (fondaparinux) and drugs from the US penicillin business bought from GSK in November 2010. The Hyderabad-based company also noted that during the quarter, three abbreviated New Drug Applications were filed in the USA and 79 ANDAs in total are pending for approval. Ten of them are first-to-file submissions.
Dr Reddy’s also did well in Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States, where revenues rose 15% to 3.32 billion rupees. In Europe, sales climbed 14% to 2.43 billion rupees, while domestically, turnover was up 11% to 3.33 billion rupees.
In India, six new products were launched during the quarter, while the firm said that its biosimilars portfolio grew by 25% over the previous year. Revenues from Dr Reddy’s pharmaceutical services and active ingredients division reached 5.56 billion rupees, up 12%.
