Dolphin Labs To Alter Portfolio

Dolphin Laboratories Ltd, the city-based pharmaceutical formulations firm, is changing its product profile and plans a foray into the healthcare segment.

The company recently sold five brands to Dr Reddy's Laboratoriesat a price believed to be around Rs 20 crore.

These brands are Doxt (doxycyline, an antibiotic), Styptovit (Vitamin-K with combinations), Styptomet (ergomtrine maleate, a gynochological product), Styptochrome (adrenochrome monosemi carbazo, which stops bleeding), Trichodol (Trycholine citrate with sorbital, indicated for hepatic disorders).

The marketing rights of Dicynene ethamsylate has also been ceded to Dr Reddy's. Dicynene ethamsylate could not be sold as it was being manufactured under licence from Labom, a Swiss company.

 

Dolphin is now left with two antibiotics, protozoal and cyproheptadin an antihistamine, which too, it is not averse to selling.

Dolphin was the leader in haemostatic (blood clotting) products, which have now been dispensed to Dr Reddy's. Haemostatic products have a small market-size of about Rs 10 crore.

In the Rs 40-crore doxycycline segment, Dolphin was placed third. It still retains an amoxycillin product which has a market of Rs 300 crore. In this segment, Dolphin is the seventh largest producer.

The fate of the plants at Dum Dum near Calcutta and Sanand in Gujarat also hang fire.

The Calcutta unit set up 23 years ago has an installed capacity of 65 lakh tablets, 40 lakh capsules and 8 lakh injectibles per month.

The Sanand unit of the company, established in March 1995 at a cost of Rs 9.5 crore, has a higher capacity. On a monthly basis it can manufacture 2 crore tablets, 80 lakh capsules, 10 lakh sterile powder injections and 10 lakh liquid injectibles.

Depressed conditions, squeezed margins and tighter liquidity position have hit the company's bottomline.

For the period ended March 31, 1998, Dolphin had posted a Rs 84 lakh loss out of a total turnover of Rs 29 crore. In the first three quarters of 1998-99, sales stood at Rs 13.7 crore and losses climbed to Rs 1.20 crore.