Alembic sees 1% rise in EBITDA on antidepressant drug nod

Alembic Pharmaceuticals expects 100 basis points improvement in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization as it has earned exclusive rights to sell Pristiq generic tablets for 24 Months.

On Tuesday, Vadodara based company said that it had received US Food and Drug Administration approval desvenlafaxine base extended release tablets, or a generic of Pfizer's Pristiq used in treatment of depression. The company has also signed an agreement with Ranbaxy to market the product in the American market.

Alembic soars 18% on nod for depression treatment drug

"In terms of P&L (profit and loss) we haven’t given any forecast but the innovative molecule is about USD 570 odd million dollars and we hope to take about 10 percent market share within the first year," Pranav Amin, Director, Alembic Pharmaceuticals told CNBC-TV18 today.

He further added that being an innovative product the margins very high. The company plans to launch the product immediately in 50 mg and 100 mg dosage strengths.

Desvenlafaxine Base is Alembic's first 505 (b) (2) filing under the US FDA. Amin said that although the company does not have any other innovative product under the section, its working on some other concepts and aims to file them in next few months. The company has total 55 abbreviated new drug application filed with US FDA, out of which 20 are approved and 35 are still pending for approval, Amin said.  

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Capex plans

Alembic Pharma has earmarked Rs 100 crore of investment for growing its international generic business. "The international generic business is growing very fast. As I mentioned that, we will grow by at least 30-35 percent for the next year or two. For that we are increasing our capacity that is in progress right now…The capacity should be up this month onwards," Amin said.

The company's domestic business has grown 15 percent in current year. Among domestic business, apart from anti-infection, its chronic side business was growing very fast, Amin said. The company expects its active pharmaceutical ingredients business to grow at 10-15 percent, domestic at least 15 percent and international generics at 30-35 percent in the next financial year.