Dr Reddys bullish about better sales in Europe in FY19

New Delhi: Dr Reddys Laboratories expressed hope of higher sales this year in Europe, a key market, as it has overcome some of the regulatory issues that had hit its performance in the last quarter of FY18.

The drug maker also said it wants to have a strong pipeline of difficult-to-manufacture complex formulations that address key therapeutic needs to counter the pricing pressures in the USA as it is difficult to predict how long these trends will last.

There was also a regulatory hiccup when the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) of Germany audited" Dr Reddy's formulation unit 2 at Bachupally here, the company said in its latest annual report.

This resulted in the good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliance certificate not being renewed in August 2017. Corrective work was immediately undertaken.

After a follow-up audit, the GMP non-compliance status was withdrawn in January 2018. However, stoppage in the sale to Europe for four months led to lesser revenues, it said.

"Thankfully, this is over, and we expect to increase sales in FY 2019, Dr Reddy's Chairman and Co-Chairman K Satish Reddy and G V Prasad respectively said in the report.

Prasad is also the CEO of the pharma company.

Having launched operations in France, Italy, Romania, and Spain, the drug maker should be working on generating higher revenues from these countries, and to increase its market presence in Europe in the near future, they said.

The company's management has accepted several challenging goals for FY2019 which include better plant management, an unwavering focus on institutionalizing best-in-class manufacturing and quality practices, the report said.

Bringing about greater efficiency in Research and Development and product development, and driving hard to perform better in sales in the USA, Europe, India and the emerging markets were also among the challenges, it said.

The total revenues of the company in FY18 were pegged at Rs 14,203 crore.

Though Dr Reddys registered eight percent growth in revenues from Europe to Rs 822 crore during last year, the Q4 of the Fy 18 revenues from the region declined by 17 percent year-on-year.