India’s largest drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd departed from its practice of providing sales guidance for 2020-21 as it expects near-term uncertainties due to covid-19. “I wish we could give you a guidance. However, given the uncertainties in near term, we are breaking from our normal practice. We will revisit this stance in the next quarter,” said Dilip Shanghvi, managing director, Sun Pharma, in an investor conference call.
Last year, Sun Pharma‘s had guided that its consolidated sales growth would be in the low- to mid-teens. Eventually, the drug maker’s sales were up 13% for 2019-20.
The company posted 14% revenue growth at ₹8,185 crore in January-March on account of strong sales in India.
The Mumbai-based pharma major said that considering that the covid-19 lockdown was primarily in the April-June quarter, there was considerable uncertainty in FY21. “We estimate some softening of sales in the near term due to the lockdown and some stockpiling by customers. It is difficult to quantify the impact at this point of time,” said Shanghvi.
The company’s head of India business, Kirti Ganorkar, said that the April-June quarter is likely to be challenging especially as April saw substantially lower prescriptions due to the stringent lockdown measures and lack of clinic visits and elective surgeries. He expects sales to recover in June after seeing some positive change in May.
Sun Pharma, just like its peers, has seen disruption in its operations since the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of covid-19 started in March. Globally, too, the pandemic caused significant disruption.
The company’s US sales declined 15% year-on-year to $375 million, but this was primarily due to a one-time benefit it had received in the corresponding period of last year.
Sun Pharma posted 37% decline year-on-year in its consolidated net profit in January-March to ₹400 crore, as it was hit by a one-time cost of ₹260 crore over litigation.
