Sun Pharma posts Q1 profit on strong US sales

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India's largest drugmaker by market value, reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, reflecting higher sales in its largest market, the US.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India's largest drugmaker by market value, reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, reflecting higher sales in its largest market, the United States.

April-June net profit was Rs 13.91 billion ($227.73 million), compared with a net loss of Rs 12.76 billion a year earlier. The prior-year period included a Rs 25.17 billion provision for settlement of a patent infringement litigation.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of Rs 12.85 billion, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Net sales rose 12% to Rs 39.36 billion, while sales in the United States, from where the company makes more than half its revenue, advanced 7%. Sun Pharma is in the process of gaining regulatory approvals for its $3.2 billion acquisition of loss-making rival Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Ltd and expects to close the deal by December.

The company has got approvals for the deal from anti-competition authorities in all applicable markets excluding India and the United States, Sun Pharma said in a statement late on Tuesday.