Price of medicines may soar if evergreen patents granted

Many medicines would become too pricey for ordinary consumers in the near future if the government allows manufacturers to extend patents under the so-called evergreen system.

This would allow drug companies to fix the cost of medicines, health advocates say.

"Evergreen patents could block competition and access to affordable medicine," researcher Usawa-dee Maleewong of the Health Systems Research Institute, said.

Usawadee's research into the impact of evergreen patents in Thailand found that over 2,188 requests for patent protection were submitted to the Intellectual Property Department between 2000 and 2010. Of these, only 12 were made by local drug makers, with the rest submitted by multinational pharmaceutical firms. American drug companies submitted about 736 requests during this period.

The department has approved 31 requests to date, meaning patent protection could be extended to these pharmaceutical products for 20 years - or indefinitely.

Usawadee's study revealed that most requests were intended to extend the patent term on an existing compound of a drug or on one to which minor changes had been made. She estimated this strategy would help create monopolies in Thailand worth about Bt8.4 billion over the next 15 years. - See more at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Price-of-medicines-may-soar-if-evergreen-patents-g-30200825.html#sthash.J5pUS0sg.dpuf

DriveDroid lets you boot Linux on a PC by plugging in your (rooted) Android phone

Makers of Linux-based operating systems have been letting you boot Fedora, Ubuntu, and other popular software from a removable CD, DVD, or flash drive for years. Now you can use your Android phone instead.

DriveDroid is a free app that lets you store a Linux ISO on your phone, plug it into a PC and boot from that disk image.

When you boot from this sort of disk image the entire operating system is loaded into your computer's RAM. That means that the OS should run pretty quickly (depending on what kind of hardware you're using), even though it's booting using files grabbed from your phone over a USB connection.

It also means that you can boot into an operating system such as Ubuntu or Chromium OS without overwriting Windows or whatever other software's already on your PC's hard drive.

There are a few good reasons to do this sort of thing. It gives you a chance to test an operating system before deciding whether to install it. You can also boot a Linux-based operating system on a PC as a sort of repair utility — you can reformat the hard drive, recover files, or perform other operations if there's something wrong with your primary operating system.

Don't have a Linux ISO handy? No problem. DriveDroid also includes an option to download popular Linux-based operating systems including Arch, CrunchBang, Debian, Fedora,OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu.

The easiest way to test out DriveDroid is to download SliTaz, an operating system that only takes up 35MB. It's one of the quickest operating systems you can download, and it's a light-weight OS that doesn't require a bleeding edge computer to run well.

You can also use the app to create a blank USB image which you can use to store files that are accessible to a PC.

DriveDroid requires a rooted phone or tablet and a USB cable to work properly. Some operating systems and some Android devices may not work as well as others.

Enabling & disabling the USB port in windows via registry.

As per the Microsoft knowledge base article 823732 which contains instructions on how to disable USB storage access

for a certain group of users this disabling and re-enabing of USB ports is based on a simple registry entry.

To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP and 2000:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\

Services\UsbStor

4. In the right pane, double-click Start.

5. In the Value data box, type 4, click Hexadecimal

(if it is not already selected), and then click OK.

6. Quit Registry Editor.

To re-enable a disabled port:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\

Services\UsbStor

4. In the right pane, double-click Start.

5. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.

6. Quit Registry Editor.

However, there can be other ways too to bypass this issue,

one of the easiest is to invest in a PS2 to USB port convertor.

Indian consumers most confident globally in Q4: Nielsen

Indians have emerged as the most confident consumers globally in the fourth quarter of 2012 despite job security and economy remaining their biggest concerns, in a study by provider of market information and insights Nielsen.

Consumer confidence in India increased two points to 121 in Q4, 2012 from the previous quarter. India has picked up on levels of optimism from Q2 and Q3, where it was steady at 119 points, though lower from Q1, when confidence levels were at 123 points, Nielsen said in a statement.

"The aspirational Indian is willing to upgrade, while more value conscious consumers are more responsive to deals and buying in bulk to keep expenditure buoyant," Nielsen India Region President Piyush Mathur said.

According to the survey conducted between November 10 and 27, 2012, consumer confidence declined in 33 countries and increased in 19 countries. It polled more than 29,000 online consumers in 58 countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and North America.

India was followed in second and third by Philippines (119) and Indonesia (117) in the consumer confidence index. Crisis-ridden Greece came last with its consumer confidence index at 35.

As per the latest survey, 54 percent of respondents in India indicated they would put spare cash into savings.

"Thirty-nine percent said they would invest in new technology and products, while 36 percent reported they would spend spare cash on new clothes," it added.

When it came to buying things they wanted and needed, 55 percent of Indian respondents felt it was a good time in Q4. Four in five online consumers (81 percent) indicated they have changed their spending habits to save on household expenses.

"The fourth quarter highlights the willingness of people to spend during the holidays and festival season...The optimism, though, is tempered with a judicious controlling of household and discretionary expenses in order to balance the household budget," Mathur said.

The survey showed that job security and state of the economy continued to be the top concerns for Indian respondents.

"For one in five respondents (20 percent), job security is the biggest concern in Q4, down two points from Q3 (22 percent). The state of the economy is the biggest concern for 11 percent of respondents, down by three points from Q3 (14 percent)," it said.

Yet, globally 76 percent of online consumers in India and Philippines were the most optimistic about job prospects in the next 12 months, followed by online consumers in Thailand (70 percent) and China (70 percent), Nielsen said.

Can cut rates only when deposit rates cool: HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank  has been on a branch expansion spree in semi-urban and rural places over the last couple of years, outpacing rivals, as it hopes to reap rich dividends from the wealth creation in these centres when economic growth picks up in the coming years.

"Looking at the next 5-10 years, we do believe that if you are going to have a 6-8 percent GDP growth, you are bound to have trickle down effect of that into more and more semi-urban and rural locations," Paresh Sukthankar, Executive Director, HDFC Bank said in an interview to moneycontrol.com.

HDFC Bank shares outperformed those of peers by a wide margin for a long time after the market meltdown in 2008 triggered by the global financial crisis. But the law of averages finally seems to be catching up, as investors fret about valuations. Over the last one year, the stock has risen about 27 percent while rival private sector players like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra have gained between 30-52 percent.

Analysts say HDFC Bank's fundamentals remain sound, but current prices are fully reflecting the positives.

Sukthankar is confident that his bank will continue to grow faster than the industry average, but cautions that the rate of growth be a function of how the economy does.

Responding to criticism that HDFC Bank has managed to protect its asset quality by shying away from long term loans to capital intensive sectors, Sukthankar said the bank's portfolio only reflects the key drivers of the economy.

"As the investment cycle picks up again, between our own balance sheet and our investment banking capabilities, we will be happy to participate what we believe are bankable projects with the sponsors that we are comfortable with," Sukthankar said.

Edited excerpts of the interview:

Q: Your bank has been consistently outperforming rivals in terms of earnings growth and asset quality, even in a difficult operating environment. What is the secret sauce?

A: If there was a simple recipe to this I am sure it would have got replicated. There is no one secret or couple of specific issues. One of the key contributors to this relatively more stable performance has been the diversification of our businesses. If you look at it from a lending point of view or an asset point of view, our business is almost half and half between wholesale and retail. I think that is important because if you look at the last 10 or 15 years that you are talking about, for almost 7-8 years till 2-3 years back, retail was the mantra. Then you went through a phase where post 2008-2009, when a lot of retail portfolios gave trouble for a number of banks—both domestic and foreign—and as a result retail became outcast of sorts and people were not looking to grow their retail books. 

That was the time when capex cycle, infrastructure and new projects and so on were pretty much the key drivers of loan growth for the banking system. That happened for about four years or so. Again now in the last year or so because there have been some apprehensions about what is happening on the infrastructure side, on the capex cycle and the policy environment and so on. Clearly once again banks are re-focusing on retail.

In the last few years, in those 2-3 years when retail at an industry level came down, our retail was growing a little slower than 20 percent, but corporate was growing at about 25 percent. So, again we maintained our growth rates.

The point is that even in years or during periods when of one of the businesses is looking significantly more attractive than the other, we continue to invest in and grow the other business, although rates of growth may vary.

If you then look at the other reason why banks go through volatility in businesses and earnings, it is because of what happens on the funding side. We are essentially a deposit funded bank. We are not dependent on wholesale borrowings or foreign currency bonds and stuff like that. Within deposits again there is high proportion of retail—current and savings accounts(CASA)—which  provides certain stability to the funding patterns. So we are a little less vulnerable to the volatility in interest rates than perhaps those who are more dependent on wholesale (bulk) deposits or wholesale borrowings. That again then gives us certain stability to our margins.

Besides, we have been growing our distribution network; so we are gaining market share.

Q: The rate of deposit growth has been slackening, making it difficult for banks to cut lending rates. Do you see this trend changing anytime soon?

A: Deposit growth has been sort of sluggish at a system level and it has certainly been slower and lagging loan growth. So, if you look at the last numbers which came out, you had deposit growth still at a system level at 13 percent or little less than that and loan growth was around 15-16 percent. So, there is some concern that deposit growth is not keeping pace with loan growth.

While we all have cut some interest rates and so on, for this to continue you certainly need a further reduction in the liquidity deficit which is there in the banking system which means either deposit growth picks up or you have further CRR cuts or some further liquidity which comes in through the OMO (open market operations) or other route and reduces the LAF (liquidity adjustment factor) borrowings to perhaps closer to Rs 30000-40000 crore (from around Rs 1 lakh crore at present). Then banks will say: okay at these rates we have got enough deposits, why not drop deposit rates. Because the only way you can drop your base rate on the lending side is if your deposit rates come down.

As far as we are concerned, our deposit growth has been certainly healthier than the system deposit growth. But even then, if you look at our deposit growth, it was around 22 percent as of December. So, we were clearly higher than the overall system, marginally slower than our loan growth which was around 24 percent. There was marginal difference of course, but we also had some tier-II capital and so on. So, we were more than comfortably funded. While both our loan growth and our deposit growth are ahead of the system so to that extent we have been able to source enough deposits, the fact is that at a system level if you need to see the transmission of lower rates on a continued basis, you would have to see further easing of liquidity. If there is not enough of deposit flows into the system at these interest rates then at lower interest rates there would be that much of a lower attractiveness of the retail deposit or of the saver to put money into bank deposits.

Q: You have opened around 1000 branches in the last two years, compared to an average of 300-400 by your rivals. Why the emphasis on the brick and mortar model?

A: We have also traditionally done an average of somewhere around 300-350 branches. In the last couple of years we clearly stepped up. A large part of this increased or an enhanced growth rate in distribution has been our focus on the semi-urban and rural markets. A good 70-80 percent of these new branches would be in new locations, in new cities which we were not in previously.

That also positions us better in terms of our priority sector lending (PSL) requirements, and whatever financial inclusion targets that we have.

We clearly believe that there is a reasonably large relatively under penetrated market in the semi-urban and rural areas. You must remember that these markets are intrinsically smaller, but collectively it will certainly make a difference.

If you look at it from a slightly more strategic point of view, today it has got a certain potential, but if you look at the next five, ten years then we do believe that if you are going to have a 6-8 percent GDP growth, you are bound to have trickle down effect of that into more and more semi-urban and rural locations. Equally from the other side when you look at better price realisations from an agriculture point of view, when you look at the government focus in terms of better supply chains, better developmental activities which are again rural based, you are going to see also greater income generation, wealth creation and the need for basic banking services which are currently not available there.

All of these things (opening more branches) cost us and we have seen some deterioration in our cost to income ratio as a result of that. But that is something we are willing to live with because we believe it is an investment which will hold us in good stead in future.

NTPC OFS oversubscribed: Govt likely to garner Rs 11,469 cr

Excerpts from What's Hot on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

The big daddy of the government's divestment agenda, NTPC  , had a successful offer for sale. The offer was subscribed 1.69 times . This was at a final indicative price of Rs 145.91 per share versus the floor price which was set at Rs 145 rupees per share.

The issue has received bids for 132.8 crore shares. CNBC-TV18's sources say that the cut for the NTPC OFS was set at Rs 145.55 rupees per share and that the government will get Rs 11,469 crore from this issue, a tad lower than its Rs 12,000 crore rupee target.

However, this boosts the government's total earnings from divestment to over Rs 20,000 crore.

According to Prtihvi Haldea, CMD, Prime Database the government would be extremely happy at this response because you know it has been oversubscribed and significantly oversubscribed. "Given the size of the issue, I think the response is overwhelming and the government should be very happy that, you know, this has not gone the ONGC or any other, you know, different way," he adds.

However, sounding a bit apprehensive, SP Tulsian of sptulsian.com said, "Definitely the OFS is a successful one, but what is interesting to note is that if you see upto 3.15 pm, the OFS had received close to about 95 cr shares. And I would have been happy to see the indicative price crossing Rs 147/share, since it has come you know, between Rs 145 -146/share, one can still say that the OFS has been successful, but ultimately, the quality of the investors which we will get to know maybe in the next 3-4 days, that who all have applied for and allotted the share, will be very interesting to see that."

US exports may drive top Indian pharma cos to grow in 2013

Top Indian pharma players will continue to grow strongly at over 20 per cent in 2013, primarily led by exports to the US market, India Ratings said in its outlook for the sector. "We believe that top players of the sector will continue to grow strongly in 2013 (over 20 per cent per annum), primarily led by exports. "Of the export markets, Indian pharma will focus on the US market which presents significant opportunities for the next two years for generics, due to patent cliffs and recent changes in healthcare policies," said the India Ratings report on outlook for Indian pharmaceuticals for 2013.

Patent expiry opportunities, coupled with efforts to contain healthcare spends, are likely to drive the generic market in developed countries. Affordability and availability will make a case for generics usage in the branded generic developing markets. As per IMS Health, global generic spending is expected to increase to USD 430 billion by 2016 from USD 242 billion in 2011.

India Ratings said R&D spends may continue to increase in 2013 as well as Indian players have started targeting complex chemistry products. R&D spends have increased over the last few years as pharma players have built robust portfolios of products approved by USFDA. Most companies also have a strong pipeline of products awaiting approval, it said. Robust new product pipelines may bear fruit in 2013 on commercialisation. Incremental capex requirements, however, are likely to remain modest in the year as many companies benefit from existing infrastructure which would be sufficient for expected increase in operations, according to the agency.

Observing that the growth drivers for domestic pharma market would remain intact, India Ratings said the decision of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP) 2011 to increase the number of drugs under price control will not have any major impact on the sector's profitability. The pharma industry has also performed well on exports front, too, with exports having been increased from Rs 386 billion in 2008 to Rs 775 billion in 2012. A rise in demand for generics in developed markets will be led by patent expiries and an expansion of generics usage due to efforts taken to control healthcare costs by governments, according to the report.

Bharti Airtel to buy Alcatel-Lucent stake in India JV

Bharti Airtel  said it would buy the entire equity stake of Alcatel-Lucent SA Airtel launches voice based portal for value added services

Airtel launches voice based portal for value added services

Bharti Airtel  today launched a voice-based solution portal for value added services that will provide information in local language on activities such as agriculture, devotion, job updates, entertainment, education and health.

'Apna Chaupal', designed for rural and semi-urban market, will enable mobile customers across the country to browse and subscribe value added services by dialling toll free number 58080, the company said in a statement.

"We are happy to launch the Apna Chaupal service for our customers who can now easily avail all the relevant value added services from a single portal at 58080 without having to memorise the individual dialling numbers of each of the service," Bharti Airtel CEO (Delhi/NCR) Rohit Gothi said.

Bharti's Africa EBITDA estimates need to be trimmed: JM Fin

The service will enable customers to access services like learning agricultural techniques, receive instant updates on 'mandi' rates and government jobs, access entertainment services like hello tunes, on their mobile phones with a voice call.

Cadila Health Q3 profit falls 31% to Rs 103cr on higher tax

Cadila Healthcare  's consolidated net profit fell more than 31 percent year-on-year to Rs 103 crore in the third quarter of financial year 2012-13, impacted by higher tax and other expenses.

Consolidated total income rose by 16 percent to Rs 1,604 crore from Rs 1,383 crore during the same period.

Bottomline was quite dismal while topline came in in-line with expectations. Analysts on an average were expecting net profit at Rs 195 crore on total income of Rs 1,593 crore for the quarter.

Tax expenses jumped 3.6 times YoY to Rs 63.03 crore in October-December quarter.

Cost of material consumed increased 60 percent YoY to Rs 398.45 crore and other expenses rose by 24 percent YoY to Rs 579.25 crore for the quarter.

Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined marginally to Rs 255 crore from Rs 262 crore YoY.

Operating profit margin dropped 300 basis points year-on-year to 15.9 percent while analysts had expected it at 20 percent.

At 14:42 hours IST, shares declined 1.2 percent to Rs 806.30 amid hefty volumes on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Cipla Q3 net profit jumps 26% YoY to Rs 339 cr

Pharmaceutical firm Cipla  's net profit grew by 25.55 percent year-on-year to Rs 339 crore in the third quarter of financial year 2012-13.

Total income rose nearly 18 percent to Rs 2,070.5 crore from Rs 1,758 crore during the same period.

Analysts on an average were expecting net profit at Rs 372 crore on revenues of Rs 2,049 crore for the quarter.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up by 26 percent YoY to Rs 493 crore in the October-December quarter as against analysts' forecast of Rs 512.7 crore.

Operating profit margin moved up 150 basis points YoY to 23.8 percent in the third quarter. Analysts expected it at 25 percent.

Domestic revenue grew by 10 percent (as against 13.5 percent in September quarter) to Rs 957 crore in December quarter, helped by anti-asthma, anti-biotics and cardio drugs.

The company maintained growth in exports over 35 percent. International business revenues rose by 38 percent YoY to Rs 969 crore during the quarter.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) dropped 16 percent (as against growth of 9 percent in September quarter) year-on-year to Rs 137 crore in the third quarter.

Management changes

Dr YK Hamied, which has been managing director (MD) for atleast 30 years, will retire as MD with effect from March 31, 2013. But he said he would continue as chairman in company in non-executive role.

"It's time to act as Godfather and let youngsters take over," Hamied said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

MK Hamied, which has been MD for atleast 10 years, will continue as the only MD for Cipla.

Shasun Pharma eyes robust Q4 growth, says MD

We are committed to get numbers of Rs 145 crore of EBITDA for the whole year

S Abhaya Kumar

MD

Shasun Pharma

Shasun Pharmaceuticals reported a fall in consolidated net profit of nearly 67 percent year-on-year to Rs 8.2 crore in the third quarter of FY13. The company's consolidated net sales too came in weak, slipping 13 percent to Rs 257.1 crore from Rs 295.8 crore during the same period.

Abhaya Kumar, MD of Shasun Pharmaceuticals  said the Q3 margins were stressed owing to price pressures from the US. Besides, they also had to cut prices in one of the API supplies to US which added to their woes. Going forward, he expects to post robust growth in Q4 and is looking to get numbers of Rs 145 crore of EBITDA for the entire year.

Here is the edited transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18.

Q: The market does not like your numbers because your EBITDA has halved year on year and has fallen by a third even quarter on quarter. What went wrong in the current quarter?

A: If you look at the year to date number, the total revenue has improved by 6.3 percent and EBITDA levels have definitely been a little higher than last year. This quarter there has been a shortfall and off take of one of the products of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the margins were also under pressure. That is why you see a little reduced revenue growth and pressure on the margins.

Otherwise, year to date, we are doing well and we are committed to get numbers of Rs 145 crore of EBITDA for the whole year.

Q: What led to the margin pressure in the current quarter?

A: One of the APIs which we are exporting to the US had price pressure and we had to reduce the price to keep the market up. But, the quantities did not move to the extent that we had expected. However, all those corrections have been done now and we expect a robust Q4 that will take us to the same levels of last year or little higher than the last year.

Q: In the UK market too there are reports that because of regulatory issues you might be facing loss of business from one client. Is that true?

A: There are no such regulatory issues in our UK plant at all. One of the customers had a regulatory warning but that has got nothing to do with our performance in UK. If you look at our UK performance it has been good and we have maintained the profitability there.

Q: But your contract manufacturing and research services (CRAMS) business in the UK is down 24 percent year on year?

A: Year on year it is not 24 percent down but instead of 42 million pounds this year we will be doing around 37.6 million pounds. So you see a 10 percent degrowth in UK but the EBITDA margins have been little better.

Q: So why is the fall happening in the CRAMS business in UK?

A: Customers move their market or offtakes according to the market condition but there is always a challenge to get new customers. In fact, in UK the new customer growth we have has been phenomenal compared to so many previous years.

We have secured a major contract in 2013-14 for 5.3 million pounds. There are exciting phase three opportunities and we have got 12 new products to our UK pipeline. We also have several other key products in our pipeline. So Shasun Pharma Solutions Limited (SPSL) UK as such is going to continue to maintain profits and continue to perform better year on year than what it is doing right now.

With the order received for one of the key intermediate for phase III molecule, which is for Alzheimer's disease, we see a huge growth in the coming years in SPSL UK.

Q: So you expect Q4 to be much better than Q3?

A: Definitely, because Q4 performance has always been better.

Improvement in gross margins likely to continue: Ipca Labs

Our branded formulations this quarter has grown up by 15 percent and overall for the first nine months of the current year this business has grown by 17 percent

AK Jain

ED 

Ipca Labs

Last week, Ipca Laboratories  reported net profit of Rs 87.89 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2012 on the back of strong sales across domestic and international markets. AK Jain, ED, Ipca Laboratories told CNBC-TV18 that the margins are going to remain in the regions of around 32 percent plus. "Slight impact is expected on account of certain additional cost which is taking away 1 percent of EBITDA because of the additional cost. There is an improvement in overall gross margins and that trend would continue," adds Jain.

Below is an edited transcript of AK Jain's interview on CNBC-TV18

Q: Give us an update with regards to your Indore facility. The US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) inspection has been delayed, can you give tell us why there was a delay?

A: I think there is some issue related to travel schedule of the inspector. It is just postponement of around a month's time, so it is going to be in the month of April now instead of February end.

Q: Were there any one-off costs that you incurred because of the delay with regards to the USFDA inspection that showed up on your P&L this time?

A: There is nothing of that type. On P&L, there is another additional cost which is on account of certain fees required to be paid to USFDA, because USFDA came out with the guidelines to pay fees on our pending abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) files and also the drug master file (DMF) files which are already permitted. So, there is a huge one-time cost on that filing.

Also Read: Budget 2013: Budget key mkt trigger; buy Dabur & BoI, says Religare 

We have incurred additional Rs 10 crore on R&D because of certain special project which is going on right now, some additional expenditure has come, but in spite of those expenditure we are maintaining healthy EBITDA margins of almost around 22.59 percent for the quarter and also for the first nine months it is around 22.74 percent, that is more or less in line.

Q: What about your margins? They were marginally lower at 22 percent. What were the reasons for the shortfall and will you be able to improve your margins? A part of the margin shortfall was hidden by the higher other income, but how will margins perform hereon as well?

A: Margins are going to remain in the regions of around 32 percent plus. Overall, margins are more or less intact, there is no change. Slight impact is expected on account of certain additional cost which is taking away 1 percent of EBITDA because of the additional cost from filing fees and from certain special R&D projects which are right now going on, we have incurred a huge cost on that account. There is an improvement in overall gross margins and that trend would continue.

Q: What is the run rate that can be seen in the domestic business? You have lost some contract manufacturing business in the nutraceutical space this time around, but you clocked in a 13 percent growth which is pretty much in line with the industry. What is the trajectory that we can expect for the domestic formulations business and domestic business as a whole?

A: Our branded formulations this quarter has grown up by 15 percent and overall for the first nine months of the current year this business has grown by 17 percent. Except for the anti-malarial which is having a very low growth in this quarter as well as in the second quarter of the current year, we are having good growth and our pain segment is growing much faster than the market. In cardiovascular, we are growing at market rate and our other therapies like dermatology, urology are growing much faster. So overall, in domestic market we should be able to post around 17 percent growth for current financial year.

Q: There was a one-off this quarter on your UK business. Do we expect it to bounce back? What would your guidance be on your international business there?

A: Temporarily for a month, month and half there was a disruption in production in UK because of certain issues at our distributor front. The supplies could not be shipped because of certain issues at their end. Though it took some time, but those issues are resolved by the party and we will also have good business growth coming from the UK now.

Q: Can you give us some details on your financial matters? How much of your export earnings have you sold forward? What is the dollar earnings vis-à-vis rupee earnings or non-rupee earnings? How much of it is sold forward? What is the debt situation?

A: We have a policy of hedging our net foreign exposures to around 40-60 percent. Currently, for next one year around 47 percent of our net exports are hedged and that hedge rate is almost around Rs 56 or so, so that is the overall hedge that we are having. As far as the debt position is concerned, overall debt in the balance sheet at March end would be lower than last year's debt, so there is no increase in the debt in the current financial year. As far as outstanding or External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) are concerned that is going to be in the region of around USD 72 million by March end and is currently around USD 76 million which will be around USD 72 million at year end.