Biocon, a leading biotechnology company, said its consolidated fourth-quarter profit fell 54.52% over the last year period. It earned consolidated profit of Rs 1.13 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2014, compared with Rs 2.48 billion, a year ago.
 
Quarterly total income rose to Rs 7.28 billion, an increase of 14.29% over Rs 6.37 billion in the same period a year ago.

''We expect FY15 to reflect continued business momentum with biosimilars, branded formulations and research services driving growth. The progress in our development pipeline (across biosimilars and novel molecules) will see some of our molecules enter the clinic. We continue to make investments in infrastructure and people to support our growth,'' the company said.

Commenting on the quarterly performance and highlights, chairman and managing director, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw stated,''Biocon ended fiscal 2014 on a strong note. We delivered 16% revenue growth along with a healthy EBITDA Margin of 25%. This fiscal we recorded robust performance, an outcome of our efforts aimed at optimising our product mix, augmenting capacities and driving operational efficiencies.

We have delivered on our promise of affordable innovation through commercialization of Alzuma(TM), an anti-CD6 novel biologic for Psoriasis; and CANMA(TM), the world's most affordable trastuzumab. We are pleased that a large number of patients benefitted from these two products. We continue with our innovation led business strategy and look forward to deliver superior value to our stakeholders.''

Ravi Limaye has joined Biocon as president, marketing. He has over 25 years' experience with global pharma companies like Novartis, GSK and Roussel Uclaf (now part of Sanofi). Prior to joining Biocon, Ravi was with Novartis, India, responsible for their Specialty Business, Business Development and Licensing.

Commenting on this performance, Ravi Limaye, president - marketing, Biocon, said, ''The healthy growth of 14% this fiscal from our biopharma segment reflects our ability to manage the rapidly changing business environment. We continue our efforts to rebalance our product portfolio in the biopharma segment to ensure higher margin accretion despite the underlying current of commoditization in some of our key product portfolios. The strong traction in biosimilars, supported by capacity augmentation should hold us in good stead till our Malaysian facility comes online. The return to growth of our branded formulations segment is a positive sign, and we expect this vertical to deliver strong growth going forward.''

Shares of the company declined Rs 22, or 4.5%, to settle at Rs 466.90. The total volume of shares traded was 290,069 at the BSE (Wednesday).