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Drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals is looking to control its problem of “expired stocks”, even as the company targets 15-20 per cent growth this year.
Expired stocks, or medicines returned to the company after their expiry dates have lapsed, have cost the company Rs 21 crore this year, Mr Deepak Parekh, Chairman, GSK Pharma, told shareholders on Tuesday.
Last year, expired medicine stocks stood at about Rs 20 crore, but this year's amount is less in percentage terms, he said, adding however, that the company had to control this wasteage.
GSK Pharma's Managing Director in India, Dr Hasit Joshipura, added that drug companies had, in the past, agreed with the trade – distributors, chemists and their all-India union – that the expired stocks would be taken back. The industry norm is about 1.5 per cent of sales, he said. GSK's is less and the attempt is to bring it further down, he added.
Responding to queries on the company's growth projections, Mr Parekh said the management had been given the mandate to sustain growth at 15-20 per cent. The board of directors did discuss whether the country would meet its growth targets, given the inflation, oil shock and the situation in West Asia – these are factors that need to be managed, he said.
With 4,338 employees, the company was faced with 21 per cent attrition, less than the industry average of 26 per cent, he said. The company spent 0.3 per cent of its profit before tax on corporate social responsibility, he added.
On GSK's products, he said, medicines under the Government's price-control policy stood at 26 per cent of sales, at Rs 515 crore. This was compared to last year's 27 per cent.
New products contributed Rs 26 crore to the company's turnover, while the loss on taking diabetes drug rosiglitazone off the shelves was Rs 5 crore, the management said. The company will bring its prostrate drug from the parent's portfolio, Dr Joshipura said, without giving details. The company earned Rs 40 crore from doing clinical trials for its parent, he added.
GSK Pharma shares were marginally down on the BSE, at Rs 2,085 on Tuesday.
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