Going for growth: Malvinder Mohan Singh

He has pulled the company back from the wilderness into the woods but is still to hit a clearing.” That is what an analyst said about Ranbaxy MD and CEO Malvinder Mohan Singh recently.

The statement may need some re-phrasing now that the US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Pfizer’s application to re-issue a patent for its largest selling cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, thus, offering Ranbaxy a window of opportunity to launch a generic version of the drug sometime in March 2010, 15 months ahead of schedule.

But Pfizer has the option of filing an appeal against this decision in the US Supreme Court; so, it may be too early to celebrate.

Ranbaxy, which is already among the world’s top 10 generic drug companies, plans to enter the top 5 list by 2012, by when it is hoping to touch a turnover of $5 billion (Rs 20,500 crore), compared to $1.3 billion (Rs 6,065 crore) for the year ended December 2006. Singh has drawn up plans for both organic and inorganic growth.

He made six global acquisitions last year and has already become a major thorn in the flesh of European and US drug companies. The western media hates him; the Guardian once called Ranbaxy an Indian specialist in “copycat drugs”.

But Singh, who has gone on record saying that all he is concerned with is delivering value to his stakeholders, is not bothered. Ranbaxy posted a robust growth of about 118 per cent in consolidated net profit to Rs 266 crore in the quarter ended June 2007.

Excluding the impact of forex gains, it still works out to Rs 160 crore. This is against Rs 122 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (quarter ended June 30, 2006). But watch out for some nice surprise manoeuvre from the young CEO.