Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon, commented: "All our key businesses - biopharmaceuticals, enzymes and research services demonstrated positive growth. The numbers reported have exceeded our internal profit targets. Given the increased capacity coming on stream in FY 2005-06, we are confident of achieving healthy sales growth, despite the pricing pressure on our Statins business. We will maintain current levels of operating margins. However, profit for the year ahead will not grow as fast as sales. This will be partly attributable to an increased depreciation charge on our new facilities which will cater to large US market opportunities for Simvastatin and Pravastatin emerging in 2006 but more importantly, the company plans to significantly increase R&D investments to support a discovery led research strategy. We believe this approach will deliver superior shareholder value over the medium and long term." Biocon has made significant progress in its collaborative in-licensed R&D programs - h-R3/cancer vaccines (with CIMAB), oral insulin (with Nobex) and human antibodies (Vaccinex). "We see these as rapidly developing into very large global opportunities over the next 3-4 years," added Shaw.