Cipla Q3 net profit rises 7% to Rs 808 crore

New Delhi: Drug major Cipla on Wednesday reported a 7 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 808 crore in the third quarter ended December 2022, aided by robust sales in the US market.

The Mumbai-based drug maker had reported a net profit of Rs 757 crore in the October-December period of the last fiscal.

Its total revenue from operations rose to Rs 5,810 crore in the third quarter compared to Rs 5,479 in the year-ago period, Cipla said in a regulatory filing.

"Our Q3FY23 performance reflects sustained momentum in core One-India and US businesses driving our overall revenue growth of 6 per cent reported and 11 per cent on a ex-Covid basis," Cipla MD and Global CEO Umang Vohra said.

The company achieved the highest ever quarterly revenue for the North America region of USD 195 million driven by the contribution of differentiated products and market share expansion in flagship respiratory and peptide franchises, he added.

"Our reported operating profitability of 24.2 per cent reflects our focused efforts on navigating external headwinds and continued higher R&D spends stemming from ongoing respiratory trials and initiation of biosimilar programmes," Vohra said.

In an online interaction, he noted that the company expects to sustain growth momentum of 10-12 per cent in the coming years.

He also noted that growth of domestic business, product launch initiatives in the US market, and stabilisation of business in South Africa were some of the focus areas for the drug firm.

On the company's Goa plant, Vohra said the drug firm was in touch with the US health regulator and expected a fresh audit of the facility in the May-June period. The USFDA has classified the plant as 'Official Action Indicated (OAI)', impacting product approvals from the facility meant for the US market.

According to the USFDA, OAI means "objectionable conditions were found and regulatory administrative sanctions by FDA are indicated" during inspections.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2022, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2,311 crore against Rs 2,176 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Total revenue from operations rose to Rs 17,014 crore compared with Rs 16,503 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Shares of the company ended 2.12 per cent down at Rs 1,039 apiece on the BSE.