Cipla first quarter profit lags estimates; names new CEO

Cipla's April-June net profit was 3.65 billion rupees, compared with 6.49 billion rupees a year earlier

Cipla Ltd , India's fifth-largest drugmaker by sales, reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit as revenues in its home market were hit by government measures to cut drug prices.

The company said it had appointed Chief Operating Officer Umang Vohra as its new chief executive officer and managing director, effective Sept. 1, replacing Subhanu Saxena, who resigned to "attend to emergent family priorities."

Cipla's April-June net profit was 3.65 billion rupees ($54.59 million), compared with 6.49 billion rupees a year earlier. That quarter included a higher-than-expected profit from its generic version of the heartburn drug Nexium.

Analysts, on average, expected a first-quarter profit of 3.76 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

 

Cipla sales in India, which contribute roughly 40 percent to its total sales, are expected to have been hurt also from a ban on more than 300 fixed-dose combination medicines that the government deemed lacked therapeutic justification.