Dr Reddy's fourth quarter profit misses estimates, stumbles on U.S. regulatory hurdles

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd reported a quarterly profit below analysts' estimates, hurt by increasing regulatory hurdles in its largest market, the United States.

India's second-largest drugmaker by sales posted a net income of 3.38 billion rupees ($52.56 million), missing forecasts of 4.27 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The quarterly profit was significantly higher than the 1.23 billion rupee net profit of the same year ago period, which was hit by a one-off payments problem in Venezuela.

"FY17 has been a challenging year due to lack of new product approvals for the U.S. market," Chief Executive G.V. Prasad said in a statement to exchanges.

 

($1 = 64.3050 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Miral Fahmy)