The Hindu Business Line : Marginal rise in Biocon net

The figures
Depreciation for the quarter rose 141 per cent to Rs 17.76 crore.
On a sequential basis, net profit rose 21 per cent while revenues grew 23 per cent.

MS KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW, Chairman, Biocon, and Mr Rakesh Bamzai, President (Marketing), at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday. — G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Oct. 18

Biocon has posted a marginal 4.13 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 45.34 crore, while net sales rose 24.15 per cent to Rs 249 crore during the second quarter of 2006-07.

Announcing the results, the Biocon Chairman and Managing Director, Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told newspersons that depreciation has impacted the post-tax profits as the company has made huge investments into the Biocon Park and other activities.

Depreciation for the quarter rose 141 per cent to Rs 17.76 crore.

For the full year, depreciation was expected to be around Rs 70 crore, nearly 133 per cent more than the previous year.

On a sequential basis, net profit rose 21 per cent while revenues grew 23 per cent. "We are confident that we will maintain the profit level," Ms Mazumdar-Shaw said. "Research services and biopharmaceuticals will be our big drivers of growth," she said.

She said profits from research services were in excess of 50 per cent.

Other income has reduced to around Rs 86 lakh from Rs 1.13 crore, as proceeds from the IPO worth around Rs 315 crore, which was invested in mutual funds, had now been used for investments into the Biocon Park and for other activities. The total investments made into these projects were around Rs 650 crore.

R&D spend

For the first half of the year, net profit rose by a mere 2.43 per cent to Rs 84.25 crore on net sales of Rs 461 crore, which rose 23 per cent.

She said that R&D spend has increased 150 per cent to around Rs 10 crore during the second quarter which will continue to increase further. Revenues from licensing were around Rs 8 crore during the second quarter.

It was marginal during the previous quarter.

Cancer drug

Biocon is seeing extremely good response to its anti-cancer drug, BIOMAb EGFR and expects it grow into an Rs 100-crore drug in another three-four years.

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw said the drug could extend a patient's life beyond two years. The company had recently acquired the marketing rights for the drug in South Africa, she said. The drug is targeted at patients suffering from neck and head cancer. "The drug is the first anti-EGFR humanised monoclonal antibody to be made available commercially anywhere in the world," she said.

She said Biocon's discovery led diabetes and oncology research programmes to continue to make good progress.

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