Chennai-based Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd has restructured a portion of its Rs 440 crore debt portfolio.

Orchid also expects to close this financial year with a turnover of about Rs 540 crore, with its formulations division bouncing back riding on revenues of about Rs 65 crore.

K Raghavendra Rao, managing director, said the average cost of funds would go down from “about 10.5 per cent to about 8 per cent” in the current fiscal.

Orchid, Rao said, expects to restructure another Rs 100 crore debt in the next six months and will go in for purely dollar loans.

“We expect to achieve about 30 per cent savings on interest costs in the current fiscal with the restructuring,” he said.

Orchid expects to close the current fiscal with revenues in the region of Rs 540 crore with the bulk drug division contributing about Rs 480 crore and the formulations division contributing about Rs 65 crore.

“We expect our formulations division to cross the Rs 100 crore revenue mark in 2003-04 and give us margins of around 10 per cent,” Rao said.

Drug trials in June

Orchid Pharma is all set to start pre-clinical trials of its anti-infective drug in June. The company is slated to finish pre-clinical studies on two other molecules - one on diabetes and one on anti-inflammation - by May and July respectively.

These two molecules are being developed by its 50:50 joint venture with Bexel of California.

Based on the results of the pre-clinical trials it expects to file investigational new drug applications with the FDA for phase 1 trials (toxicology trials on humans with no health problems).