BENGALURU/HYDERABAD (Reuters) -India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries reported third-quarter profit above estimates on Wednesday, driven by strong sales in the key domestic and U.S.
markets.
The company reported a consolidated profit after tax of 25.24 billion rupees ($304 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ estimate of 24.17 billion rupees as per LSEG data.
Sales in its U.S.
formulations business rose nearly 15% to 39.74 billion rupees, while sales from its India formulations rose more than 11% to 37.79 billion rupees.
Both businesses together account for more than half of the company’s total sales.
Sun Pharma makes generic and specialty medications for chronic and acute treatments, over-the-counter medications, anti-retrovirals, and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Its global specialty drug sales were $296 million, up 24% excluding a ‘milestone’ of $20 million, the company said, without offering further details.
Speciality drugs are costlier and are used to treat complex chronic diseases.
Revenue from operations rose 10% to 123.81 billion rupees in the December quarter.
Sun Pharma’s results follow Dr Reddy’s and Cipla, both of whom beat their respective third-quarter profit estimates.
Shares of Sun Pharma rose 3.5% after results. During the reporting quarter, the shares rose 8.7%.
($1 = 83.0000 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru and Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Varun H K)
