BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian generic drugmaker Zydus Lifesciences Ltd reported a bigger-than-expected 24.5% rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, helped by strong sales in its key domestic and U.S. markets.
The Ahmedabad-based company said its consolidated net profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 6.23 billion rupees ($75.78 million), up from 5 billion rupees last year.
Analysts, on average, had expected the company, formerly known as Cadila Healthcare, to report a profit of 5.62 billion rupees.
Sales from the company’s key markets India and the United States grew 12.5% and 29.3%, respectively.
“With India Formulations in on a double-digit growth trajectory and US business continuing to build traction, portfolio execution will sustain growth momentum,” said Sharvil Patel, Managing Director of Zydus Lifesciences.
The company’s consumer wellness segment in the domestic market, known for making glucose powder GluconD and anti-bacterial cooling powder Nycil, grew 7.8% from a year ago.
The impact of price hikes to mitigate inflationary pressure would be reflected from the fourth quarter onwards in the consumer wellness segment, which accounted for 10% of total revenues in the third quarter, the company said in an exchange filing.
Consolidated total revenue from operations rose nearly 20% to 43.62 billion rupees.
Zydus shares were trading 0.5% lower at 430.5 rupees as of 12:57 p.m. after the results. They fell 13.1% last year, compared with a decline of 11.43% in the Nifty pharma index.
Rivals Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd had beaten profit estimates for their third quarter on strong drug sales.
($1 = 82.2170 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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