Ranbaxy banks on Pfizer settlement to revive falling fortunes

29 July 2008

Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, which reported a 91 per cent drop in second-quarter profit, expects to double its sales by 2011, following the settlement of a dispute with Pfizer Inc over its patented drug Liptor.

Ranbaxy's profits took a knock after the rupee registered its biggest quarterly decline in a decade against the dollar. Ranbaxy booked a Rs193 crore writedown. Excluding one-time items and foreign exchanges losses, profit was little changed at Rs161 crore.

Liptor, the world's most-prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine, is being manufactured by Ranbaxy under the name Atorvastatin. Liptor had global sales of $12.7 billion in 2007.

The settlement with Pfizer will allow Ranbaxy to sell generic versions of the drug and the fixed dose combination of Atorvastatin-Amlodipine besylate (Caduet) worldwide.

Gurgaon-based Ranbaxy, the largest drugmaker in India, which is being taken over by Daiichi Sankyo Co of Japan, expects to become a $5-billion company in terms of sales and position itself among the top five global generic companies by 2012. 

Ranbaxy's net income fell to Rs22.9 crore ($5.4 million) in the April-June quarter against Rs264 crore a year earlier, the company said.