Glenmark's 3rd-qtr FY '08 profit soars 48%

Mumbai, India-headquartered Glenmark Pharmaceuticals says it is on track to exceed its $155.0 million profit forecast for its financial year 2008, having achieved a market-beating 48.2% income expansion to 2.80 billion rupees ($71.2 million), in its fiscal third quarter ended December 2007. The firm also reported consolidated revenue for the period of 6.85 billion rupees, up 53.56% on the comparable quarter of its 2007 financial year.

During the period, Glenmark said that the revenue contribution from its specialty and generic divisions had increased 32.4% to 4.17 billion rupees and 104.6% to 2.68 billion rupees, respectively. The gains made in generics are of particular interest following the firm's announcement, in November last year, of plans to spin-off this part of its business for listing on the Indian bourse in the first quarter of its 2009 fiscal year.

Glenn Saldanha, Glenmark's managing director, said that the firm's receipt of a $45.0 million upfront fee from US drug major Eli Lilly (Marketletter November 5, 2007), coupled with a 144.3% increase in revenues from its US operations, had driven its performance in the quarter. He added that the firm was also close to securing another outlicensing deal and would continue to seek "$10.0-$20.0 million front end" companies in territories worldwide.