Wockhardt third-quarter profit falls 29 percent

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Wockhardt Ltd reported a 29 percent drop in quarterly net profit, hit by a fall in sales after the U.S. health regulator banned two of the drugmaker's plants from exporting products to the United States - its largest market.

In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an import alert, effectively a ban, against Wockhardt's Chikalthana plant in western India. The FDA had imposed a ban on the company's Waluj plant in May.

Wockhardt's net profit in the third quarter fell to 3.04 billion rupees from 4.28 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a statement late on Sunday. Total sales dropped 14 percent to 12.37 billion rupees.

 

The company's U.S. business, which accounts for 44 percent of revenue, fell 30 percent in the quarter.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Supriya Kurane)