Drug firm Pfizer on Wednesday reported a 39.87 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 872 million for the quarter ended December 2017, mainly on account of lower expenses. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 623 million during the same period of the previous fiscal, Pfizer said in a regulatory filing. Revenue from operations for the quarter under review stood at Rs 4.565 billion as compared to Rs 5.102 billion in the same period of the last year. It said net profit after tax (including other comprehensive income) for nine months ended December 31, 2017 was Rs 2.549 billion as against Rs 2.676 billion in the year-ago period. The company's stock closed 4.30 per cent up at Rs 2,201.55 apiece on BSE on Wednesday.