BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Alembic Pharmaceuticals reported a bigger-than-expected third-quarter profit on Monday, driven by higher sales in the domestic and U.S. markets.
The generic drugmaker reported a consolidated net profit of 1.80 billion rupees (nearly $22 million) for the three months ending Dec. 31, beating analysts’ average estimate of 1.46 billion rupees, as per LSEG data. It had reported a profit of 1.22 billion rupees in the year-ago period.
New product launches and easing price erosion in the United States have benefitted generic drugmakers such as Alembic and also larger rivals, including Cipla, Dr Reddy’s and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, all of which beat their third-quarter profit estimates on strong U.S. sales.
The waning impact of high-cost inventories have also boosted profits for drugmakers.
Alembic Pharmaceuticals’ revenue from operations rose 8% in the December-quarter, led by a 9% rise in its India and U.S. businesses each.
India and U.S. segments constituted about 37% and 29% of its total revenue, respectively.
The company, which makes drugs like Azithral, used to treat bacterial infections, and anti-ulcer medicine Deltone, said its profit margin expanded to 11.1% from 8.8% a year earlier.
Its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business, which contributed 19% to the total, fell 11% to 2.89 billion rupees.
Alembic Pharma makes APIs used in drugs to manage diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis and depression.
Its shares rose more than 8% after the results. They fell 3.2% during the December quarter.
($1 = 83.0475 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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