(Reuters) -Sun Pharmaceutical, India’s largest drugmaker by revenue, reported a bigger adjusted quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by strong domestic demand for its drugs to treat rare diseases.
The Mumbai-based firm’s consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax rose 24% to 36.16 billion rupees (nearly $421 million) in the three months ended March 31.
The company incurred a one-time charge of 3.62 billion rupees and an exceptional tax expense worth 3.78 billion rupees in the quarter related to Sun restructuring its U.S. operations and an impairment on an investment.
Including these charges, net profit after tax fell 19% year-on-year.
Sales in India, Sun’s largest revenue-generating region, increased 14% to 42.13 billion rupees, forming 33% of the total sales.
Sales from its high-margin global specialty segment, which includes drugs used to treat rare and complex chronic conditions such as hair loss and psoriasis, rose 8.6% to $295 million, or about 20% of the total.
Still, while total revenue rose 8% to 129.56 billion rupees, it missed analysts’ estimates of 132.53 billion rupees, mostly as sales in the United States declined 2.5%.
Among its rivals, Dr Reddy’s and Cipla both beat fourth-quarter profit views on strong domestic demand. ($1 = 85.9500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio D’Souza)
