DRL drubs Ranbaxy in sales stakes

Ranbaxy's decade-long dominance as the country's biggest pharmaceuticalcompany by sales has come to an end. Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the thirdlargest drugmaker for a long time, clocked Rs 6,434.6 crore ($1.57 billion)sales in 2006-07 to dethrone Ranbaxy, which had Rs 6,096.8 crore ($1.49billion) sales during the year ended December 31, 2006. Ranbaxy's sales forthe trailing 12 months stood at Rs 6,358.9 crore ($1.55 billion).Dr Reddy's march over its rival was possible due to 174 per cent increase inthe company's sales, primarily contributed by an additional revenue flowfrom the operations of Betapharm, the German company it acquired in 2006.Dr Reddy's Betapharm acquisition for $572 million remains the biggest everin the Indian pharmaceutical space. With Dr Reddy's giving a guidance of 30per cent growth compared with Ranbaxy's 20 per cent growth projection for2007-08, the former's leadership position is likely to continue for thecurrent year, according to analysts.The company that got pushed to the third position is Cipla, which registeredan annual turnover of Rs 3,572.14 crore for 2006-07. Dr Reddy's 2005-06 netsales were Rs 2,346.57 crore, lesser than Cipla's Rs 2,985.88 crore for thesame period.Commenting on the achievement, G V Prasad, vice-chairman and CEO of DrReddy's, said the company's had seen a fantastic turnaround to reach theleading position."We have reached a position of great strength to become the largest and mostprofitable pharmaceutical company in India. We have thus created a strongfinancial foundation, upon which we build the future," Prasad said.The revenues from the international markets for Dr Reddy's increased by 250per cent to $1.3 billion and contributed 86 per cent to the total turnover.Revenues from authorised generics contributed 24 per cent and acquisitions21 per cent to the total revenues. Dr Reddy's, established in 1984, hadcrossed the $1 billion mark turnover in December 2006.Dr Reddy's growth through the inorganic route is in tune with the globalgrowth projections for the Asian pharmaceutical sector.A PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis, published on May 21 based on interviewswith 185 CEOs of pharma companies, found that the Asian pharmaceuticalindustry, especially Indian and Chinese, is gearing up to be at the centreof the global market."Indian companies had the strongest appetite for acquisitions and the leastappetite for divestments. Forty eight per cent of the Indian pharmaceuticalcompanies were considering acquisitions compared with 31 per cent inSingapore and just 17 per cent of the Chinese companies," the PwC reportsaid.Stockmoves