Malaria-medicine exports to bolster Ipca Labs sales

Ipca Laboratories Ltd, India’s biggest supplier of anti-malaria drugs, forecast a 25 per cent jump in sales of the treatments this year because of increased demand from overseas buyers, including aid agencies. Revenue from malaria medicines will reach 3.3 billion rupees ($72 million) in the 12 months ending March 31, from 2.6bn rupees a year earlier, said joint managing director AK Jain in a telephone interview. Ipca sold a record volume of the chloroquine malaria treatment last month, spurred by outbreaks in several states including Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, Jain said.

Ipca, India’s best-performing health-care stock in the past year, is ramping up production of medications to fight the mosquito-borne disease. Malaria killed almost 1 million people worldwide in 2008, according to the World Health Organization. Mumbai-based Ipca will generate as much as 1bn rupees from the export of a generic version of Novartis AG’s Coartem, which combines the medicines artemether and lumefantrine, Jain said. Ipca rose 0.5 per cent to 295 rupees as of 9:03 am on the Bombay Stock Exchange, valuing the company at about 37bn rupees. The stock has doubled on India’s 17-member BSE Healthcare Index in the past 12 months, beating the benchmark’s 45 per cent gain.