Alembic Pharma Q4 Results: Posts higher profit on strong N.America sales

Indian generic drugmaker Alembic Pharma reported a 17% rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, driven by strong sales, especially in the key North American market.

Consolidated profit rose to 1.78 billion rupees ($21.3 million) in the three months ended March 31, from 1.53 billion rupees a year earlier.

Indian generic drugmakers like Dr. Reddy's Laboratories , Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical have been benefitting from price recovery in the U.S. market as well as strong sales, especially of their copycat versions of Bristol-Myers Squibb's blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid.

On Tuesday, Dr Reddy's beat fourth-quarter profit estimates, boosted by strong U.S. sales of its generic version of Revlimid.

Alembic Pharma, which also sells a copycat version of Revlimid, said overall revenue rose nearly 8% to 15.17 billion rupees.

Sales in North America grew 19%, while domestic sales climbed 3% in the quarter. India and the U.S. contributed around 61% of the drugmaker's total revenue. ($1 = 83.5000 Indian rupees)