BackNatco Q3 profit doubles to Rs37.2 crore
Natco Pharma doubles profit on account of increased sales of its formulation business
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Hyderabad: Drug maker Natco Pharma Ltd on Thursday said net profit more than doubled in the quarter ended 31 December on account of increased sales of its formulation business.
Net profit stood at ₹ 37.2 crore as against ₹ 14.3 crore in the same period a year ago.
Income from operations grew 41% to ₹ 276 crore.
Income from formulation business, which accounts for 73% of the company’s total business, doubled to ₹ 202.6 crore.
Around half of Natco’s generic sales comes from its oncology drugs.
Sales of active pharmaceutical ingredients or API—the key raw materials that go into manufacture of drugs—rose marginally by 7% to ₹ 67.7 crore.
Natco’s performance was largely on account of its domestic business, and specifically due to the traction of its generic hepatitis-C drug Sovaldi, said Afzaal Mohammed, pharma expert at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd.
Natco had the first-mover advantage in terms of Sovaldi. The company got approval in March from the Drugs Controller General (India) to sell a licensed generic copy of the anti-viral drug sofosbuvir in India.
Sofosbuvir is a $1,000-a-pill Hepatitis C drug of Gilead Sciences Inc., sold under the brand name Sovaldi.
The hepatitis-C franchise could have contributed about ₹ 60 crore to total formulation sales, Mohammed said.
Shares of Natco rose 1.35% to close at ₹ 446.40 on BSE, while the benchmark index Sensex fell 3.40% to end 22,951.83 points.
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