India's Alembic Pharma posts Q1 profit on strong sales
Indian drugmaker Alembic Pharmaceuticals posted first-quarter profit on Friday, boosted by strong sales in its domestic and U.S. markets.
The Vadodara-based company said consolidated profit rose to 1.21 billion rupees ($14.6 million) for the quarter ended June 30 from a loss of 658.8 million rupees a year earlier.
Revenue from its India business rose 9%, while its U.S. business rose 6%.
Alembic Pharma's India and U.S. segments contribute 35% and 26%, respectively, to its total revenue.
Founded in 1907, the company makes drugs like Azithral, used to treat bacterial infections, and anti-ulcer medicine Deltone, besides active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for acute and chronic diseases.
APIs are key biologically active elements in a drug that help with delivering the desired health effects.
Its API business, which constitutes 21% of the revenue, rose 21% to 3.05 billion rupees.
The company's revenue from operations climbed nearly 18% to 14.86 billion rupees.
Last month, larger peers Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Cipla posted first-quarter profits that beat analysts' estimates.
Shares of the drugmaker rose as much as 2% after the results before paring most of its gains, while the Nifty Pharma index rose 0.8%.
($1 = 82.7950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
