Our Bureau

Mumbai , Oct. 19

WOCKHARDT Ltd has posted a 30 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 69.2 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, as compared to Rs 53.2 crore in the same period September 30, 2004.

Total Income has increased from Rs 225.2 crore in the third quarter last year to Rs 260.9 crore for the period under review this fiscal.

The Group has posted a net profit of Rs 65 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, (Rs 55.8 crore). Total income has increased from Rs 320.9 crore in Q3 last year to Rs 362.4 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"Our numbers reflect the company's resilience and global growth story amid changing undercurrents in the global pharmaceutical industry," the Wockhardt Chairman, Mr Habil Khorakiwala, said in a note issued by the company after its board meeting here on Wednesday. "We are fully committed to higher growth over the next five years. It will come organically as well as through acquisitions," he added.

In the US market, Wockhardt's sales grew by 41 per cent in the third quarter. The company also intends to start distribution of three drugs from fellow-competitor Aurobindo, the Chairman said.

Wockhardt has also entered into a strategic alliance with Perrigo, one of the largest players in the US OTC market, for the distribution of famotidine and ranitidine. Commercial supplies of cefuroxime axetil also started during the quarter.

Sales of Wockhardt in the UK grew by 11 per cent in local currency during the quarter. The company launched a new product, terbinafine on the first day of the brand going off patent. The German business posted a 26 per cent sales growth.