Drugmaker Lupin's profit halves as U.S. sales slump

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd reported its quarterly net profit nearly halved from a year ago, falling far short of analysts' expectations, as sales at its top market the United States slumped while the company's costs jumped.

The Mumbai-based firm posted a net profit of 3.80 billion rupees ($58.63 million) for the fourth quarter ended March, below 7.48 billion rupees a year ago and an average estimate of 6.45 billion rupees from 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Manufacturing costs and other expenses for the world's No.7 generic drugs maker rose about 30 percent in the quarter, during which Lupin worked on upgrading its Goa manufacturing plant that is under U.S. Food and Drug Administration scrutiny for quality standards violations.

Sales from its largest market, North America, slumped 13 percent, chiefly due to loss of market share to competitors in its key portfolio of generic forms of the diabetes drugs Glumetza and Fortamet.

The company's overall sales rose about 1.3 percent, helped by a nearly 14 percent rise in revenue from India, Lupin's second-largest market, the company said in a press release.

Lupin's shares fell as much as 7 percent to their lowest in nearly three years after the earnings report on Wednesday.

They pared losses later to trade down 1.7 percent at 0953 GMT, while the wider market was down 0.2 percent. ($1 = 64.8175 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)