Orchid Chemicals net jumps by 91% in Q3 due to US generic business

Orchid Chemicals and & Pharmaceuticals Ltd has posted strong performance during the third quarter ended December 2007 on account of higher income and lower interest burden. The company's standalone net profit has taken a quantum jump of 91.1 per cent to Rs 54.12 crore from Rs 28.32 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its standalone sales increased by 39.4 per cent to Rs 332.69 crore from Rs 238.73 crore. With significant growth the bottom line, its earning per share moved up to Rs 8.20 from Rs 4.31 in the last period.

K Raghavendra Rao, managing director, said, "The third quarter has emerged as one of our strongest quarters in terms of revenue and profitability. Our niche product basket in the US market comprising Cefepime, Cefoxitin and Cefazolin injectins and Cefdinir oral products continued to accelerate our earnings positively. We continue to be the sole generic player in the Cefepime market and the dominant player in the Cefoxitin and Cefazolin segments. With further product launches lined up in the US and EU markets, we are positive on continued strong performance in the fourth quarter and beyond".

The company's US generics business contributed as much as 51 per cent to the revenues during the third quarter of this fiscal. The two premium products viz., Cefepime and Cefdinir, which were launched during the earlier quarter continued to show steady growth in terms of sales and turnover. Orchid continues to enjoy the sole generic status in Cefepime injection, a key life-saving antibiotic. Other key products launched in the US market earlier continued to show good ramp-up of market volumes with a decent share of the overall revenue mix. It also launched two new injectables like Ceftriaxone Sodium and Cefoxitin Sodium during the quarter under review.

Orchid made another Para-IV FTF (First-To-File) filing (Memantine) during the quarter ended December 2007. The cumulative ANDA filing count sands at 43. Of the total ANDAs filed, 28 are in the Cephalosporin segment, 13 in the NPNC (Non-penicillin, non-cephalosporin) segment and 2 in the Betalactam space.

The company has increased its cumulative marketing authorizations in the EU market and filing count to 14 with the submission of its first dossier in the oral NPNC segment. With this, the break-up of the EU dossier filings stands at 12 in the cephalosporin segment and 1 each in the NPNC and Betalactam segments. Its total count of ANDAs approved till date increased to 23, out of which 22 are in the Cephalosporing segment and one in the NPNC segment.

For the nine months ended December 2007, the company's net sales on the standalone basis increased by 26.2 per cent to Rs 866.02 crore from Rs 686.17 crore in the similar period of last year. It's net profit for the first nine months of 2007-08 increased by 133 per cent to Rs 168.69 crore from Rs 72.37 crore. The EPS for the period worked out to Rs 25.55 as compared to s 11.01 for the last period.