The profit after tax is 460 lakh against 296 lakh last year — up by 55 per cent. The directors have approved and proposed to issue bonus shares in the ratio of two equity shares for every one equity share held, subject to required approvals.

Says Bilcare managing director Mohan Bhandari: "It is Bilcare''s constant endeavour to provide the best to the life science sector, which has also resulted in Bilcare bagging the OPPI best vendor award for the second consecutive year in 2003. The company now plans to further align its resources to take up global opportunities in a focussed manner."

In FY 2003, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 85.40 crore, an increase of 28 per cent over the previous year, while the company exports increased by 278 per cent to Rs 7.61 crore in the same period.

Bilcare is a unique research-based organisation with a vision to provide state-of-the-art and comprehensive packaging solutions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector. The main focus is scientific designing through path-breaking methodologies and optimisation of packaging solutions, including clinical packaging.

Bilcare has several firsts to its credit, including a drug master file with US Food and Drugs Administration since 2000 for barrier films and a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility conforming to cGMP norms.

It is also one of the first organisations to have received the ISO 14001 and 9002 accreditation. Bilcare has presence in over 15 countries worldwide and has also set up a world-class research and development centre near Pune.

Forging ahead, Bilcare promises to continue on its mission to provide comprehensive value addition in the area of packaging research to the global pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and healthcare sectors through its various research initiatives.