US sales drags Alembic Pharma Q3 profit down by 67%

Domestic sales remained more or less flat during the quarter at Rs 319 cr

Vadodara-based Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd has posted a 67.8 per cent year on year drop in net profit for the third quarter of the current fiscal to Rs 86.55 crore as its revenues from the international business fell by around 25 per cent compared to same quarter last year.

The company said that the surge in international revenues in Q3FY16 was due to the launch of a limited competition product Aripiprazole (generic) in the US market. Net sales for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 stood at Rs 776.15 crore as against Rs 930.17 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, a drop of 16.55 per cent. Domestic sales remained more or less flat during the quarter at Rs 319.37 crore, down marginally from Rs 321.57 crore. Exports, however, were down 25 per cent to Rs 456.78 crore.

Pranav Amin, managing director, Alembic Pharmaceuticals Limited said: "Our base business in the US market is doing well. We will continue to invest in R&D for the future growth and have spent Rs 117 crore in the quarter, which is approximately 15 per cent of revenue on R&D, this is up from Rs 70 crore last year."

International formulation business at Rs 303 crore as against Rs 521 crore last year, while the India Branded formulations at Rs 294 crore for Q3FY17 as against Rs 288 crore during the same period in last year.

For the nine months period, Alembic's net sales fell by 5.7 per cent on a year on year basis to Rs 2390 crore while its net profit fell by 50 per cent to Rs 310.12 crore.