Lupin's net profit beats forecast on generic launches

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Drugmaker Lupin on Monday beat estimates with a 42 percent growth in quarterly net profit and announced the acquisition of a Netherlands-based company that provides technology to develop injectable products.

The company, India's No. 2 pharmaceutical company by market value, did not provide the financial details of the acquisition of Nanomi B.V., which has patented technology platforms to develop complex injectable medicines.

"We have been wanting to get into injectables for the longest time but we wanted to get into differentiated products. We really liked the Nanomi technology," Managing Director Nilesh Gupta told Reuters.

"It's going to be a while before we get it translated into products but we were very interested in acquiring the technology and then build off it," he said.

Lupin's net profit in the December quarter rose 42 percent to 4.8 billion rupees on the launch of new drugs in its key U.S. market, including the generic version of Eli Lilly & Company's Cymbalta used for treating major depressive disorder.

Analysts had expected Lupin's December-quarter net profit to be at 4.3 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The company expects to maintain its current pace of launch of four to five generic drugs each quarter in the United States, which accounted for 45 percent of its sales in the third quarter, in the near future, Gupta said.

Shares of Lupin, which has a market value of more than $6 billion, rose as much as 4.9 percent after the results.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Sunil Nair)