For the year, R & D spend was Rs. 2859 million, or 9% of net sales. For the standalone entity, the spend as 6% of turnover.

Our teams at the R&D centers continue their task of building pipelines-developing cost effective & efficient processes for dosage forms as well as APIs, scaling these up from the labs to the plants, working on product development for demanding international markets, developing ANDAs for a strong pipeline in the US. The team also develops & scales up complex generics to offer heft to our branded generic business in India & ex-US markets. As can be expected in competitive markets, speed to market is critical. Hence these teams are always under pressure to multitask on parallel product  development and bring these to market. In the past years a number of interesting product opportunities such as Cernos (testosterone cyprionate) & Ovurelix (Cetrorelix acetate) have made it to  market in India, in addition to Lipodox (a targeted anticancer) and Lupride (a once a month or three month depot anticancer and fertility drug) which we have detailed extensively in the past.

We will work to scale up the pace of filings and rush them to high value international markets as generics. These  complex product opportunities help us prepare for a competitive future.

This year saw the first of  technology based ANDA filings from Sun Pharma, with technology sourced from SPARC Ltd. For Effexor XR, an antidepressant on which we had filed a para 4 with a FTF, the wrap matrix technology used to  create this tablet has been sourced in from SPARC Ltd. and we expect to reach market on product approval.

Between Sun Pharma & Caraco, ANDAs for 89 products await approval at the end of March 08, up from 65 in the previous year. 70 of these pending filings are for Sun Pharma and its subsidiaries, 19 are from Caraco. These products are an interesting mix of simple generics, complex generics (including  a few with a technology advantage), and a few para 4 challenges. This pipeline, one of the strongest from Indian companies, will drive growth at Caraco, our plants in the US at Bryan & Cranbury, as well as our USFDA - approved Indian sites.

API continues to be a source of great support for our dosage form business. Entry into closely held markets, cost leadership, quick entry into interesting formulation markets, are some of the advantages of integration. In all, we have 101 filings for DMF and CEP, based on the work done by the chemistry teams at our research center, of which 50 API are approved from two sites in India and one in Hungary.

Our technical skills & dedicated manufacturing capability in areas such as peptides, anticancers, steroids and hormones will enable us differentiate in a competitive marketplace and power our generic growth plans.