July 23 (Reuters) – India’s Cipla reported a bigger-than-expected fall in first-quarter profit on Thursday, extending its run of declines on muted sales of a generic cancer drug and supply disruptions tied to tumor treatment lanreotide in the United States.
The drugmaker’s consolidated net profit fell 39.2% to 7.89 billion rupees ($81.73 million) in the quarter ended June 30, marking the third straight quarterly decline. Analysts, on average, had expected 8.17 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Revenue from operations rose 2.3% to 71.19 billion rupees, beating analysts’ estimates of 70.73 billion rupees.
India and North America together account for about two-thirds of the company’s revenue.
Cipla, which is focusing on expanding its presence in chronic therapies in India, is banking on sales of obesity drug Yurpeak, marketed under a licensing agreement with Eli Lilly.
India’s drug market for GLP-1, a class of therapy of which Yurpeak is part, surpassed 2.2 billion rupees in June. Yurpeak captured a 15.7% share, the company had said earlier.
Cipla has increasingly relied on its domestic market to offset weakness in the United States, where sales of the generic version of Bristol Myers Squibb’s cancer drug Revlimid have declined following the loss of exclusivity.
U.S. sales were also hurt by supply disruptions to lanreotide, a treatment for rare tumors, after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection at the facility of its sole supplier led to a temporary production halt.
($1 = 96.5375 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Subhranshu Sahu)
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