Mumbai

Cipla Ltd., has registered a 21.89 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 73.66 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 60.43 crore in the same period previous year.

Net sales stood at Rs 394.34 crore (Rs 341.06 crore).

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai: Pharmaceutical major Cipla has clocked a 21.89 percent surge in net profit at Rs 73.66 crore in the second quarter ended September 2002 as compared with Rs 60.43 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

Net sales increased 15.62 per cent at Rs 394.34 crore from Rs 341.06 crore. Other income has decreased from Rs 7.92 crore in the second quarter of fiscal 2001 to Rs 4.09 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal 2002.

Our Mumbai Bureau
22 October

Cipla, the country's second largest pharma company by market share, has shown a 22% rise in its net profit at Rs 73.7 crore as sales grew faster than costs in the second quarter of "02-03. Net sales rose 16% to Rs 394.3 crore while total expenditure rose 12% to Rs 296.2 crore.

In the first half of the current fiscal, net profit rose 28% to Rs 134.3 crore while net sales were up 24.5% at Rs 797.3 crore, indicating a slowdown in growth in the second quarter of the year. Cipla's chairman and managing director Y K Hamied had earlier this year indicated that the lackluster domestic market would impact sales. A senior Cipla executive, however maintained that the targeted growth of 20% in the full year would be met.

However domestic sales grew 16% at Rs 259 crore which is higher than the industry's single-digit growth in the quarter, but lower than Cipla's own performance in QI. Cipla's exports, which have fuelled growth in successive quarters slowed down to 16% at Rs 130 crore. In Q1, exports had increased 62% to Rs 141 crore.

The company earned Rs 4 crore of operating income from export incentives. Operating margins improved to 25% of net sales from 22% with analysts attributing this to better utilisation of the company's newly-set up manufacturing unit in Goa.

Cipla, India's second largest drug maker by market share, expects to raise sales by at least 20% this year, the companies chairman & managing director Y K Hamied said today. Addressing shareholders at its 66th annual general meeting. Mr. Hamied said that the first five months of this fiscal had seen Cipla's topline jump 30%.

In financial year ended '02, sales rose 32% to Rs. 1,387 crore, but lower growth rate projections this year result from a general slowdown in the pharma market. Exports continue to play an important role in driving sales and will comprise half of total sales by '05.

"From exports being only around 10% of your company's turnover until recently, for the year ended March '02 it was 35%. This year hopefully the figure would be around 40% and by '05, we are aiming at having an equal domestic sales to exports ratio." Mr. Hamied said.

Cipla's newly set-up manufacturing unit at Goa recently secured approval from the World Health Organisation & UK drugs regulator to export CFC-free asthma inhalers to some international markets. Mr. Hamied said Cipla was set to launch the worlds only budesonide (an asthma medicine) formulation in eco-friendly, CFC-free, metered-dose inhalers in Germany and throughout the Europe.

Total production from the Goa plant will account 15-20% of turnover this year, he said. The company will spend another Rs. 120 crore this year for further expansion and up gradation in Goa and other plant locations. A cancer products unit for local and international markets is expected to come up in Goa this year.

Mr. Hamied said in his chairman's address that the company has also offered the world's first metered-dose inhaler combination of budesonide and another medication formeterol as a CFC-free product. It has developed and patented a new multi-dose dry powder inhaler which will be launched in India and other parts of the world, he said. Cipla's is India's market leader in inhalation therapy with 75% market share.

Replying to shareholder's queries, he said the company had - with its partners - filed for 20 product registration in the US while 21more were under discussions. Besides, Cipla hoped to file 20 to 25 new drug master files (bulk drug registrations) in the US in the next three to five years, he said.

Shareholders approved a resolutions amending the articles of association that will allow the company to buy back its securities if it so decides.

Cilpa Ltd. has maintained close to 30% growth in the first five months of the current fiscal, and hopes to sustain this growth at least at an overall 20% level during the year.

Addressing the sixty-sixth annual general meeting, Cipla chairman & managing director Dr. Y K Hamied hoped that the company's export turnover would be around 40% of the total turnover this year. "We are aiming at having an equal domestic sales to exports ratio." he added.

The company has received approval from WHO (World Health Organisation) and an UK regulatory body to export the products manufactured in the Goa facility. Its fifth facility at Goa, to manufacture oncological products, both for the local and international market, is expected to be ready by early 2003. The company expects the Goa facility to contribute around 15-20 percent to its topline. The company has incurred an investment of over Rs. 100 crore for the four facilities set up in Goa. It has embarked Rs. 120 crore for expansion and modernisation of its Goa and Kurkumbh (near Pune) facilities, he added.

The company has filed 10 product registrations in the US market through its partners and discussions are currently on for another 21 products. The company hopes to file 25 more DMF's (Drug Master Files) during the next three to five years, Dr. Hamied said. The company already has presence in over 130 countries worldwide.

Meanwhile, the company's top ten products contribute around 15% to the turnover and expects to launch 50-60 new formulations during the current year as against 93 new products launched last year. The company claims a market share of 75% each in the aids and inhaler segment in India.

The Net profit of Cipla climbed 36.5% to Rs. 60.6 Crore in the first quarter of '02-03, from Rs. 44.4 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year on the back of strong sales growth. Net sales of India's third largest drug maker
by market share rose by 35% to Rs. 402.9 crore buoyed a healthy performance in the domestic and export markets.

Domestic Sales rose to 24% to Rs. 262 crore while exports grew 62% to Rs. 141 Crore. Domestic sales were the strongest in the asthma, cardiology and anti-bacterial segment Cipla shares remained steady on BSE in a falling market. Closing at 932.6 up 0.9% from the previous close. The results were announced after Market hours.

"There were no major surprises. The bottom line was on target. The company has done much better on domestic sales than I had expected." said Shahina Mukadam, analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities.

The share of Indian applications to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for selling bulk drugs- the key ingredient in any medicine- has, in the last five years, jumped from 1.8% to 6.2% of all such applications received by the drug regulator. Cipla tops the chart with 47 applications to its credits, followed closely by Ranbaxy Laboratories at 34 and Dr Reddy's Laboratories at 29. Other companies in the fray includes Wockhardt, Ipca, Unichem, Lupin, Neuland, Divis Lab, Shasun and Zydus Cadilla.

While bulk drugs represent a huge opportunity, the aim of leading Indian companies is to move up the value chain to finished dosage forms where margins are better. Ranbaxy took a lead in this and, over the last several years, has painstakingly built its own marketing infrastructure in the US. The channeling of resources to finished dosage forms was also behind Dr Reddy's windfall of $67m from the generic Prozac, a depression drug.

Presence in the bulk drug business, however, also gives an edge in the finished dosages market. "Indian companies are able to gather a lot of market intelligence about end-product plans of US generic companies because of their API(bulk drug) operations, as they have been contacted for API supply or technology know-how," foreign brokerage Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) reported after discussions with leading US generic companies.

The environment is also friendlier now than ever before. The demand for cheaper medicines is gaining momentum in the US. The government is rewarding companies who speed up the entry of low-cost generics into the market, by challenging patents filed by behemoth drug makers. All of this may lead more Indian firms to the US market.

In a pharma industry overview, brokerage JM Morgan Stanley said - quoting FDA data - that 50% of all Indian drug master file (DMF) submissions (applications for selling bulk drugs, chemical, etc) in the past 33 years have been made in the last five years. Indian pharma companies have filed 451DMFs between '69 and first quarter of '02. Of these, 232 were filed after '96.

"The activity of Indian companies in the US generic space is on the rise... Success in the US/European generic and drug discovery space is likely to be the key driver of the Indian pharmaceutical industry's valuation," the report says. Earlier analyses have also highlighted this trend. For instance, a report published by CSFB in March this year had noted that Indian companies were "increasingly being accepted/preferred as raw material supply source" in the US. While China is also an alternative, they are not seen on par with India on quality issues, it said. The $11-bn US generic (off-patent) market has attracted the interest of Indian companies primarily because of increasing competition in the low-growth domestic market, and the imminent product patents regine in India from '05, which will make it virtually impossible to copy patented drugs. Some companies also need cash to plough into original drug discovery, which they never had to do before. Decades of reverse engineering - making the same product by a different process - in India is now making it relatively easy for local companies to duplicate the feat abroad.

"There will be a second rung of Indian companies that will soon follow the ones who are already there. But whether they will succeed is the question, "said Vikram Bhalla, principal at The Boston Consulting Group.

CIPLA, The number two drug maker in the country by market share, expects to set up new units to make insulin, intravenous drugs and anti-cancer medicines this year, a top official said.

"We have decided in principle to set up these new facilities and the details are being worked out," joint managing director Amar Lulla said.

"We expect to spend about Rs 50 crore ($10.2 million) on these projects," he added. Money for the research and development projects are expected to come from operating cash and possibly a small bond issue.

The company gained global recognition and embarrassed some of its biggest competitors last year when it offered to export to export anti-AIDS drugs for less than $1 a day. Lulla said the drugs had been shipped to 35 countries so far.

Cipla, which last month posted a 80 per cent year-on-year raise in January-March net profit, plans to buy insulin's from other drug makers and formulate it into cartridges that can be used in injections for diabetics. A major player in segments such as "antibiotics", anti-asthma and cardiac medications, Cipla is almost unknown in the anti-diabetes segment.

Lulla said the new units would probably be located in Goa, where the company set up a new Rs 100 crore manufacturing complex during the last financial year.

STRONG growth in exports and a revival in the domestic market has lifted Cipla's net profit by 28 per cent to Rs.229.2crore in 01-02. Net sales jumped 32 per cent to Rs 1,386.8 crore. A robust fourth quarter performance also served to perk up the full year's results. Net sales for the quarter rose 48 per cent to Rs 385.6 crore while net profit jumped nearly 80 per cent to Rs 61.7 crore, outstripping analyst expectations. But Cipla shares fell 1.2 per cent to Rs 991.1 on the B SE on profit booking. Exports played their part in lifting sales and profits. In the full year, exports rose 93 per cent to Rs 497 crore, while for the quarter exports were up 104 per cent to Rs 166 crore. The recent upturn in the Indian retail pharmaceuticals market also helped Cipla's domestic sales grow 13 per cent to Rs 890 crore during the year. In the quarter, domestic sales rose 23 per cent to Rs 219 crore. Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla said the the company hoped to increase total sales by 20 per cent in the current fiscal.

Unlike in the preceding quarters where margins came under pressure, the operating margin in the fourth quarter jumped to 21 per cent of sales from 13 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year. Cipla has written off the one-time pre-commissioning charge for its new Goa plant in Q3 itself, which had depressed margins in that quarter, analysts said.

MUMBAI: Cipla Ltd reported on Monday its January-March net profit rose 79.6 per cent from a year earlier. Fourth-quarter net profit was Rs 617.1 million or Rs 10.29 per share, up from Rs 343.6 million or Rs 5.73 a share a year earlier. Shares rose 48 per cent to Rs 3.86 billion from Rs 2.61 billion. For the year end March 31, Cipla reported a net profit of Rs 229 billion, up 28 per cent. Net sales rose 32.4 per cent to Rs.13.87 billion.

To combat AIDS, YUSUF K.HAMIED insisted that supply meet demand

If YUSUF K.HAMIED came down with a grave illness requiring expensive medical treatment, he could afford it. Hamied controls the third largest pharmaceutical company in India and owns acres of invaluable real estate in Bombay. "God has been kind" he says.

But for uncounted millions the opposite is the case, and 19 months ago Hamied did some remarkable for them. At a European Commission medical meeting in Brussels, he expressed the conviction that a company should be allowed an oligopoly on life saving drugs and then proceeded to destroy one of the most outrageous of them all by offering to sell anti-AIDS drugs at a fraction of the going price. As a result, developing countries are starting to get the drugs cocktail that has saved thousands of lives.

"This is an epidemic on our hands." insists Hamied. "How can you justify selling some thing that cost $200 for $10,000?"

What Hamied did was cut through the self-serving arguments of Western drug companies that put shareholders interests before the lives of millions. Indian pharmaceutical companies, including Hamied's Cipla, have an advantage: it's legal in India to copy a medicine designed abroad and put it on the local market (as long as the companies can prove they use a different manufacturing process). But they can't export to countries with stricter patent laws. When Hamied went to Brussels in 2000, a year's treatment with the AIDS cocktail cost a patient $10,000 to $12,000. Western countries holding the patents insisted they had to earn back their original R and D. expenses. Hamied said it was time the victims got treatment regardless of the patent issues and offer t sell his cocktail for $800 to $1,000 per year. a few weeks later he lowered that price to $600 for government purchases and $350 for the Medicines sans Frontiers and group. Today, Thailand and Brazil have begun manufacturing and selling the generic AIDS cocktail. Last month. Cipla won World Health Organization approval to market the AIDS drug whenever local governments agree to allow its sale.

Hamied is proof you can do well by doing good: the ant-AIDS cocktail he sells sustains lives while helping maintain his own gold-plated standard of living.(To get around Bombay he drives a gold Lexus and periodically flies off to different parts of the world to catch up with conductor Zubin Mehta, a childhood buddy). Hamied who earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, consider the AIDS battle part of a broader campaign to maintain India's loose patent regime. India's patent laws are supposed to graduate to World Trade Organization standards in 2003 if the country ratifies the WTO's intellectual property treaty. Hamied says that could make his people as helpless against profiteering drug companies as the sub-Saharan AIDS patients of the 1990s - and India has an estimated 4 million HIV-positive cases. Hamied has the fight of his life ahead-on his own turf.

Other in the list of Asians include J-K's Mirwais Omar Farooq & Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan

A DAY after batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar equaled the record of legendary Don Bradman of 29 test centuries, Time magazine featured him on its cover page of the April 29 special issue highlighting 25 outstanding Asians.

Other in the list of these 25 Asians include cine-star Shabana Azmi, a crusader against injustice and sectarian violence, Muslim religious leader Mirwais Omar Farooqe, most moderate and pragmatic voice for peace in Jammu & Kashmir, Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai, noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese dissident leader, Hollywood star Jackie Chan and Chinese leader Zhao Zi Yang, who surrendered power for his principles, according to a magazine release here today.

The magzine said lives and works of these outstanding Asians had a profound impact on the people around them.Each of this heroes have been performing their tasks admirably going about their business, always showing up when they are excepted and needed, said Editor of Time Asia, Kari Taro Greenfeld.

Yusuf K. Hamied, head of Indian Pharmaceutical Company Cipla, who sold Aids drugs at cut-rate price to save lives, Karmappa Lama, symbol of hope and fight against repression in Tibet, Xanana Gusmao, first President of East Timor, A-Men, Taiwanese singer and a patriotic sumbol to both China and Taiwan, Gao Yaogie, a grand-mother who sounded alarm on China's AIDS plague, Wang Zhihzhi, Chinese basket ball player and Wong How man, explorer and conservationist are among others who have been included in the list.

DRUGMAKER CIPLA is in talks with Biogenerics Inc, a US based biotechnology firm, to market and manufacture biogeneric products.

Many of these products that CIpla plans to market will go off-patent in the US in the next ten years.One such drug is darbopoietin. Other products include: interferon, erythropoirtin and hepatitis vaccines.

The products that the company will market here will be manufactured by the US firm's associate in Russia.

Amar Lulla, joint managing director, said: "We are in talks with the firm but nothing has been finalised yet." He refused to divulge any details about the talks.

The company had announced plans to enter the biotechnology segment at the last year's annual general meeting. It is also keen on entering genetic engineering and stem cell research. In fact, it is even keen to enter this segment via joint ventures.

The company is country's second largest drug maker by market share.

It was recently named as one of the World Health Organisation's preferred anti-AIDS drug suppliers: the only company from India chosen by the WHO.

The company has lined up an ayurvedic drug, due for approval that can be used in reducing cholesterol.

Leading ARIS, March 20 — In a move that could help bring down the price of AIDS medicines for poor countries, the World Health Organization today released its first list of manufacturers of safe AIDS drugs, which included a large Indian producer of generics and three smaller European ones.

The decision represents a setback for the pharmaceutical multinationals who want only patent-holders to decide what discounts to offer on their most expensive and profitable products. The medicines on the list are approved for United Nations purchase, and it will encourage price competition in poor nations by telling health officials which of hundreds of generics suppliers make safe drugs.

"This is a breakthrough," said William F. Haddad, a generics maker who helped create the cheaper off-brand industry in the United States in the 1980's. He said it was the first time the World Health Organization "has had the nerve to challenge the multinationals by listing generic versions of drugs that are still on patent."

Dr. Peter Piot, director of the United Nations AIDS agency, said he hoped the list would help patients "gain greater access to affordable H.I.V. medicines of good quality."

The list includes 41 different formulations of drugs, among them 11 antiretroviral drugs and five drugs for infections that often accompany AIDS. Osf the total, 26 come from major manufacturers: GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Roche Holding, and Abbott Laboratories.

But 10 were from Cipla Ltd., the generic drug maker based in Bombay, India, that was the first to try breaking Western patent monopolies in February 2001 by offering AIDS therapy for $350 a year to charities and African governments.

Before that, AIDS treatment in Africa generally cost the same as it did in the West, $10,000 or more. Only a handful of countries had negotiated prices in the range of $1,000 a year after lengthy negotiations with the patent-holders, who sometimes required them to keep the lower prices a secret.

"I am delighted," said Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, the chairman of Cipla. "This proves that we adhere to good manufacturing practices on a par with other companies. It says Cipla is kosher, so now the multinationals can't throw at us what they have said: `They're Indian, they're Third World, the quality might be iffy.' "

Cipla products that the World Health Organization accepted include the antiretrovirals nevirapine, zidovudine, better known as AZT, and lamivudine, better known as 3TC. These three drugs make up one common AIDS cocktail. The health organization also accepted Cipla's acyclovir for shingles infections, ciprofloxacin for bacterial infections, and vinblastine and vincristine sulfate for Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer.

India recognizes patents on drug-making processes, not on products, so Cipla has a legal right there to make hundreds of chemicals made in the West as long as it makes them using slightly different steps.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Geneva, which lobbies on behalf of the multinational drug companies, issued a statement saying "it would be unfortunate if the current plague of substandard and counterfeit medicines spread" because generics makers were on the health organization's list.

Asked if the industry group was questioning the performance of the World Health Organization inspectors, Eric Noerenberg, the federation's director of intellectual property, said it was not. But he said he thought approved factories had been asked only to meet their own countries' standards. When told that the health organization said it was applying international standards, Mr. Noerenberg said, "It remains to be seen what will be supplied. We're interested."

Poor countries and medical charities, like Doctors Without Borders, are always searching for cheaper drugs, but often lack the money and expertise to inspect distant foreign factories.

Mr. Haddad said Latin American and African nations often ask him for help. He said he would write to their ambassadors immediately about the new list.

The health organization began accepting applications for the list a year ago, and teams of United Nations inspectors spent up to two weeks at each factory, said Dr. Jonathan D. Quick, the health organization's director of essential drugs policy.

Dr. Hamied of Cipla said his factories have passed 22 United States Food and Drug Administration inspections for generics made for the American market, so he was not surprised that he passed the United Nations scrutiny.

An Indian competitor, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., did not make the list. It makes a three-antiretroviral combination that it offers for as little $295 a year to customers with 5,000 or more AIDS patients.

A spokesman for Ranbaxy, Paresh Chaudhary, said the company is not yet ready to export, but hopes its factory in Dewas will pass muster in a World Health Organization inspection in April. The Dewas antibiotic production lines have already passed inspections by the United States drug agency, he said.

Up to 100 more applications are awaiting approval. The World Health Organization asked for applications for 16 antiretrovirals that attack the AIDS virus itself and 24 drugs for other conditions that attack the weakened immune systems of AIDS patients.

Dr. Bernard Pecoul, director of a campaign by Doctors Without Borders to lower drug prices, said he was "totally supportive" of inspections by the health organization. Of the list he said, "Theoretically, it's excellent because it creates competition."

But he expressed frustration that some important drugs were missing. There was not a single approved supplier for fluconazole or other antifungals that suppress cryptococcal meningitis, which kills AIDS patients after agonizing headaches, and thrush, which makes eating so painful that patients can starve to death.

Several antiretrovirals were missing from the World Health Organization list, "and for others, there is only one source, the patent manufacturer," Dr. Pecoul said. "But, hopefully, W.H.O. will go on."

For other drugs, multiple suppliers are listed. Approved makers of AZT included GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, which holds the patent in most Western countries. Also listed were Cipla and Combino Pharm, a six-year-old Spanish generics maker that supplies AZT to Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Tunisia and has a contract with Doctors Without Borders.

"I won't say we don't mind that. We always defend our patents," a GlaxoSmithKline spokesman, Adam Chandler, said. "But in this case, the W.H.O. made the decision and we've got to abide by it. We believe the way to do this is to negotiate arrangements with governments and employers in the developing world, and in poorer countries we've said we will supply at cost."

For ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic whose patent status and high price became an issue during last year's anthrax scare, the patent owner, Bayer, is not on the list as a safe supplier for AIDS-related infections. But Cipla and a Spanish generics company, Laboratorios Cinfa S.A., are. Dr. Quick of the health organization declined to say why any particular company was not on the initial list, but said they might simply not have applied yet.

He said that whether a drug was a patented or generic version was "never a question." In soliciting applications, the health organization had decided to inspect "any company that was legally registered in its own country."

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday included Cipla in its first list of preferred international suppliers of AIDS drugs, move analysts said would boost its stature but not necessarily sales. Cipla shook multinational drug companies last year by offering to provide a triple-drug anti-AIDS cocktail for less than $1 a day to poor patients in Africa. Other suppliers named on the site www.who.int/medicines are GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories, Roche Holding, French firm Doms Recoedati and the Spanish drugmakers Combino Pharm SL and Laboratories Cinfa.

This is a significant development for CIpla,"said Dilip Shah, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. But analysts said it was too early to assess the impact on Cipla's sales. "Its difficult to predict whether this approval will translate into large volumes for Cipla, though it does not open up to them the possibility of bidding for WHO tenders." said ABN AMRO analyst Giridhar Iyengar.

Company is sole generic drug firm to figure in the list
World Health Organisation (WHO) has named Indian Generic drugs major Cipla as an in-principle approved supplier for HIV-related medicines for procurement by UN agencies. Cipla happens to be the only such firm to make it to the list while the rest are patent holders.

Other global majors figuring in the list include GlaxoSmithKline, Laboratories Cinfa sa of Spain, Bristol Myers Squib of France, Abbott Laboratories, Roche, Doms Recoedati of France, Combino Pharm SL of Spain.
According to the list issued by WHO (World Health Organisation), Cipla has been pre-qualified for supply of ciprofloxacin, lamivudine, vinblastine sulphate, vincristine sulphate, nevirapine and zidovudine in various strengths. However the list does not constitute any guarantee for the procurement of the products from the suppliers mentioned.

Cipla officials were unavailable for comment. However, Indian Pharmaceutica; Alliance seceratary general DG Shah said:"It is unfortunate that WHO has not considered more generic companies from India, which has US FDA approved facilities and in terms of cost are far more efficient than others in the list.

It is believed that WHO had inspected manufacturing facilities of two to three Indian companies.

Cipla's maufacturing site at Kurkumbh has been approved for the manufacturing of ciprofloxacin and vinblastine sulphate, while its facility at Vikhroli in Mumbai has been approved for producing lamivudine, nevirapine and zidovudine. WHO had initiated the project to asess the acceptability in principle of HIV/AIDS drugs for procurement by UN agencies. The assessment procedure was aimed at identifying products and suppliers of HIV/AIDS related drugs of acceptable quality and meeting WHO standards. Invitation for expressions of interet for the pre-qualification were published in October 2000 and August 2001. The two month components of the assessment process were dossier evaluation and manufacturing site inspections.

As on date, 160 product dossiers for various products and dosage forms from 21 suppliers have been received and those products forund complying with the relevant standards included in the list. The WHO list stated that if and when new products, submitted to WHO for evaluation are found to meet the standards, they will be added to the list.

Leading drugmakers including Ranbaxy Laboratories, Zyydus Cadila and Aurobindo Pharma are all set to effect cut in prices of anti-AIDS drugs that would now be exempted from 16 per cent duty.

"We will reduce the prices by about 15-20 per cent," S.D.Kaul, regional director, Ranbaxy said.

The company which has a total portfolio of about 15 drugs would introduce the new prices in April.

Aurobindo Pharma, one of the leading players in the anti-AIDS market, has also decided to pass on the benefits of excise exemption to consumers.