Dr Reddy's to buy back Perlecan's shares

The decision was taken at its board meeting here on Monday. "We will reorient our development programmes,'' he said. Dr Reddy's had hived off the company earlier at $22.5 million. The issue of ICICI Ventures and Citigroup pulling out of the demerged entity has been in news for some time.

According to him, the company already has $9.5 million in the entity and would meet the remaining from internal sources. "We have cash for buying back the shares,'' he said.

Giving the guidance for the year, he said revenues would grow at around 25 per cent. On the dollar gaining strength, he said this had impacted the company significantly as most of its revenues come from exports. Though North America and European markets did well, the Indian market did not perform on the expected lines. "The key brands did not grow as we thought they would,'' he said. The cash and cash equivalents were less this year as the company had to meet the acquisitions expenses of Dow Chemical's Dowpharma Small Molecules business in Mirfield and Cambridge, UK, and BASF's pharmaceutical contract manufacturing business and related facility in Shreveport, US.

On reports that the US FDA was inspecting the plants here, he said inspections had always happened and the company was not against it. Prasad said the US FDA was also looking to set up offices in China and India.