Dr Reddy's Q2 net falls 30% to 762 cr

Hyderabad: City-based pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited (DRL) on Wednesday reported a 30 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 762.3 crore for the second quarter ended on September 30, 2020, as compared to Rs 1,092.5 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The consolidated revenue for the quarter under review was up by two per cent at Rs 4,896.7 crore, Saumen Chakraborty, Chief Financial Officer, Dr Reddy's, told the media here. The company posted Rs 4,800.9 crore in the second quarter last financial year.

The company had the advantage of out-licensing some of the products and also tax benefits during the second quarter of the last fiscal, he said explaining the reasons for drop in the PAT in the last quarter.

Replying to a query on the recent cyberattacks on the company's IT infrastructure, Chakraborty said the company is working with international cyber experts and also law enforcement agencies on the issue.

"There is not much impact on our operations. Recovery and restoration of all applications and data are underway. All critical operations are being enabled in a controlled manner," he said.

On October 22 this year, the company experienced an information security incident involving a ransomware attack and consequently isolated the affected IT services.

Erez Israeli, Chief Executive Officer, Dr Reddy's, said the company is expected to complete the phase-2 trials of Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V by December and phase-3 may be finished by March-end or beyond depending on the situation.

Israeli further said the company needs to engage 100 and 1,500 volunteers for phase-2 and phase-3 trials respectively.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia's sovereign wealth fund, recently received approval from the Drug Control General of India to conduct an adaptive phase 2/3 human clinical trial for Sputnik V vaccine in India. Commenting on the results, G V Prasad, co-Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Reddy's, said: "We are pleased to report continued growth across all the markets and improved productivity which is reflected in the healthy EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin and RoCE (return on capital employed)." "Our research teams are working on several potential remedies for COVID-19 in addition to the already launched products," he said.

The company's revenues from global generics segment were at Rs 3,980 crore, year-on-year growth of 21 per cent driven primarily on account of new product launches, volume traction in the base business and integration of the acquired business from Wockhardt in India.