India’s Ranbaxy surprises with quarterly net loss

MUMBAI, Feb 26, (AFP): India’s largest drug firm Ranbaxy reported Tuesday a sharp narrowing of its quarterly net loss but missed analyst forecasts for a profit after it was hit by product recall charges.

The generics drug maker, majorityowned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, posted a net loss of 4.92 billion rupees ($91 million) for the three months to December, down from a loss of 29.83 billion rupees a year earlier.

But analysts had expected Ranbaxy to be in the black for the fourth quarter and report a net profit of around 2.2 billion rupees, according to a poll by Dow Jones Newswires.

The Victorian-era railways — built by India’s former British colonial rulers — bills itself as the “lifeline to the nation” because of its vast reach but it has become decrepit and accident-prone because of underinvestment.

“Profitability for the fourth quarter was primarily impacted by the voluntary recall” of a generic version of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in the US market, Ranbaxy Laboratories said in a statement.

In November, Ranbaxy voluntarily recalled the drug after it discovered tiny glass particles in some batches of the medicine.

The problem was the latest to beset the generics heavyweight, India’s largest drug firm by sales, which reached a deal with US regulators earlier in 2012 over a lengthy quality compliance dispute in which it promised tighter checks.

Bansal promised to significantly reduce the number of unmanned crossings which claim the lives of around 15,000 people annually, a number the government describes as a “massacre”.

“We will strive to work towards a zero

The surprise quarterly net loss reflected the accounting costs stemming from the recall of the drug which it has since started resupplying to the US market again. Ranbaxy set aside 1.86 billion rupees towards recall costs.

“Ranbaxy results were disappointing, due to higher raw material costs. This was further worsened by one-off product recall costs,” said Gautam Sinha Roy, vice president (equities), Motilal Oswal Securities.

The results sent shares of Ranbaxy down 3.66 percent to 417.30 rupees.

Sales of the company, headquartered in Gurgaon near the capital New Delhi, accident situation,” he said.

For India’s estimated 26,000 wild elephants, he also pledged “special measures” to “safeguard the lives of these gentle giants” which are sometimes hit at railway crossings in forested areas. fell 29 percent to 26.71 billion rupees in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.

Ranbaxy, which has factories in eight countries, has expanded by selling cheap copies of branded drugs that have gone off-patent, and through challenges to patents owned by Western companies.

The company, which was bought by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion in 2008, launched Lipitor in the US market in 2011.

Daiichi Sankyo purchased control of the Indian firm to diversify globally and to break into the fast-growing generics market.

In December, a train killed five elephants crossing tracks in eastern India.

The government has said it is considering imposing speed restrictions on trains at elephant crossing points to reduce the number of fatalities.