May 22 (Reuters) – India’s top drugmaker by revenue Sun Pharmaceutical Industries beat quarterly profit estimates on Friday helped by demand for the company’s high-margin specialty drugs used to treat complex conditions.
The Mumbai-based firm’s consolidated net profit stood at 27.14 billion rupees ($283 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from 21.50 billion rupees last year.
That was above analysts’ average estimate of 27.12 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Sun Pharma has been pushing into higher-margin specialty medicines with a sharper focus on areas such as dermatology, oncology and obesity to offset declining U.S. sales.
The segment accounted for 22.2% of total sales, with revenue rising 20.1% to $354 million during the quarter, driven by 14.8% growth in its largest market, India. U.S. sales fell 1.1%.
Overall revenue rose nearly 13% to 146.12 billion rupees, also surpassing analysts’ estimates of 145.26 billion rupees.
($1 = 95.9125 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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