India's Sun Pharma beats Q4 profit view on strong US, domestic sales

HYDERABAD (Reuters) -Indian drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries posted fourth-quarter profit above estimates on Wednesday, helped by strong performance in its key U.S. and domestic markets.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of 26.55 billion rupees ($318.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31, compared to analysts' average estimate of 23.68 billion rupees as per LSEG data.

In the year-ago period, the company's profit stood at 19.84 billion rupees, which included a one-time charge of 1.71 billion rupees related to the acquisition of Concert Pharma and other costs.

Total revenue from operations rose 9.6% to 119.83 billion rupees, but missed analysts estimate of 122.22 billion rupees.

Sun Pharma's U.S. sales rose nearly 11.9% to 39.54 billion rupees, boosted by speciality complex drugs such as Ilumya used to treat chronic skin condition such as plaque psoriasis. India sales rose more than 10.2% to 37.1 billion rupees.

Global speciality sales, which accounted for 19.1% of total sales, rose 11.1% to $271 million, the company said in a press release.

Sun Pharma, which makes active pharmaceutical ingredients, generic and speciality medications, is also working on its own version of popular weight-loss drugs by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly which have seen skyrocketing demand.

Its shares closed 0.11% lower after the results.

Sun Pharma, India's largest drugmaker by revenue, said its board has proposed a dividend of 5 rupees per share for fiscal year 2024, which is in addition to the interim dividend of 8.5 rupees per share declared in January.

Rivals Reddy's and Cipla reported fourth-quarter profit above estimates earlier this month.

($1 = 83.2688 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam; Editing by Varun H K)