Dr Reddy has crossed a billion dollars in revenues, and that makes it the second Indian company after Ranbaxy to scale the magic figure, reports CNBC-TV18.

For drug maker Dr Reddy's, year 2006 has been the most significant so far. Dr Reddy's has already achieved a billion dollars in global sales and looks set to better this figure by end of the financial year.

The major contributor to Dr Reddy's revenues has been the pact with US drug maker Merck to sell authorised versions of blockbuster heart drug Zocor and Proscar prescribed for prostate disease.

The pact for the two drugs, which is effective for the six months between June and December, contributed almost 40% or Rs 780 crore of the second quarter revenues of Rs 1,944 crore for Dr Reddy's.

Interestingly, for the whole of last year, Dr Reddy's sales stood at Rs 2,355 crore. Besides, during the year Dr Reddy's acquired Betapharm in Germany for USD 570 million dollars.

Betapharm sales, of about USD 140 million, is also expected to add up to Dr Reddy's sales. Dr Reddy's also banked heavily on marketing Fexofenadine or the generic version of the anti-histamine drug Allegra, analysts say.

In the next two weeks, the US FDA approval for Zofran or anti-emetic drug Ondansetron, may provide the next revenue trigger for Dr Reddy's.  

However, analysts say it may get tough for Dr Reddy's to maintain the growth momentum for the next year, unless some big research deals are struck or patent challenge cases are settled out of court with US corporations.