Sun Pharmaceuticals reported a fourth-quarter loss on Monday due to one-time items and price pressures in its generics business.
The weak report card came amid a broader generic drug price erosion in the United States, which is Sun’s largest overseas market.
India’s largest drugmaker reported a net loss of Rs 2,277.25 crore in the fourth quarter versus a profit of Rs 894.15 crore in the year-ago period.
The results included exceptional items of Rs 3,935.7 crore tied to legal costs in the US for its Taro unit, an antitrust ruling in the EU and restructuring costs, among others. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had, on average, expected the company to report a profit of Rs 1,707 core.
Revenue rose 11% but was still below expectations at Rs 945 crore. The board declared a dividend of Rs 3 per share and reappointed its owner Dilip Shanghvi as managing director for five years.
“Sun Pharma has seen lackluster growth in their US generics portfolio due to higher pricing deflation on their base and slowing rate of new launches,” Bloomberg reported, citing a note by Bernstein India analyst Nithya Balasubramanian earlier this month. The drugmaker is also coping with rising raw material costs and problems at one of its factories in Halol.
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