The company, which aims to become one of the top three pharma companies in the country by 2005 and a global player by 2020, also plans to leverage its existing reverse engineering capabilities to introduce new innovative products in the market as a part of its short-term or immediate strategy for growth.

Zydus Cadila has posted excellent results for the quarter ended June 30, 2000, recording a 102 per cent surge in its net profit which has touched Rs 18.59 crore against Rs 9.21 crore in the corresponding period last year. The EPS also registered an increase and stood at Rs 3.1 in this quarter compared to Rs 1.5 in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Meanwhile, sales for the first quarter stood at Rs 132.81 crore outpacing the previous year's figure of Rs 117.03 crore by 13.48 per cent.

The group, which has been focussing on key therapeutic segments such as cardiovascular, pain management, biological, gastrointestinal and anti-infective segments, also launched five new products during the quarter.

These include Zyrof and Zycel (Celecoxib) in the pain management segment and a range of anti-HIV therapy - Ladiwin, Zydowin and Lamuzid in the anti-infective segment. Celecoxib, the worldwide blockbuster drug, which was launched in March 2000 under the brand name Zycel, is now the leader in its product category with a reflection of Rs 73.3 lakh for the month of May, according to an ORG survey.

Apart from this, the company has been making brisk progress on the research front as well. As part of its biotech research programme, the group is in the process of commercialising the typhoid vaccine and other therapeutic proteins. the research of a r-DNA based therapeutic protein too has already been completed and the animal toxicity studies have been initiated.