Sun Pharma Q4 net up 225% at Rs 723 cr

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) With a four-fold growth in generic drug sales in the US, Ahmedabad-based Sun Pharmaceuticals today said its net profit surged 225 per cent to Rs 722.8 crore for the quarter ended March 2008 from Rs 222.2 crore during the corresponding quarter last year.

Net sales for Q4 FY08 grew 129 per cent to Rs 1,257.1 crore as compared to Rs 548.4 crore during the corresponding period a year ago, a company statement said.

The net profit for FY08 stood at Rs 1,486.9 crore as against Rs 784.2 crore posted in the corresponding quarter last year, up 89.6 per cent.

The net sales for FY08 also grew to Rs 3,356.5 crore from Rs 2135.9 crore posted last year, increasing 57.14 per cent.

''We have achieved higher than expected sales and profit, built one of the strongest product pipelines, and begun to take calculated risks. This quarter, we've begun to see value creation from our intellectual property and NDDS capability. Our US performance complements strong numbers across all our business segments,'' company CMD Dilip Shanghvi said.

Company's US performance was mainly powered by the launch of two products, generics versions of Protonix and Ethyol, which were launched 'at risk' by the company.

Its US subsidiary, Caraco, had posted sales of 192 million dollars during Q4 FY08, up 487 per cent from 33 million dollars in the corresponding quarter last year.

For FY08, its sales reached 350 million dollars, growing 199 per cent over last year.

Sun and Caraco together have 53 drug approvals in the US and another 89 products are waiting for approval.

Sales of domestic formulations, speciality prescription brands sold in the country, were at Rs 1,476.2 crore, growing 25 per cent over the last year, and contributed 43 per cent to the total sales.

Sun Pharma holds 3.3 per cent market share in the highly competitive pharma market, as per latest IMS ORG report and had launched 37 key products during the year.

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