The Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd gets upset from the weak performance shown in second quarter ended September 30, 2007.

The largest Indian drug maker has announced a 4.5 percent fall in its quarterly net profit.  

The company said that the recent drop is much smaller-than-anticipated, and the strong generics sales and a tax benefit will help the company to overcome such fear.

Chief Executive G.V. Prasad said that the company, which had anticipated net profit, would go down after one-time gains in the previous year, anticipates to benefit from fresh launches and enhanced operating performance in the coming time.

Mr. Prasad said, “Going forward from 2009 onwards, there will one or two upsides, based on exclusivity or niche products. Until then it is going to be improvement in operating results, new product launches.”

Prasad also told that that the company that bought Germany’s Betapharm for $572 million in 2006, was in search of more acquirements in Russia, Eastern Europe and some other markets.

The company’s consolidated net profit came down to Rs 2.67 billion in the three months period ended September 30, 2007.  

Analysts had forecasted that the profit would fall 43 percent to Rs 1.58 billion.

There is also a steep decline of 37% in total revenue that stood at Rs 12.67 billion as compared to last year’s Rs 20.04 billion.

The income from generic drugs sales in North America also chop down to Rs 2 billion from Rs 9 billion, but without previous year's one-time benefit it climbed 63 percent.

The company said that Dr. Reddy's earned Rs 1.5 billion from the reversal of a tax liability related to Betapharm.  

Dr. Reddy’s shares, valued at $2.6 billion, fell 1.1 percent in the second quarter period.