Glenmark Life Sciences profit rises 1% in Dec quarter on API strength

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian active pharma ingredients maker Glenmark Life Sciences on Friday reported a narrow 1% rise in quarterly profit, as growth in its key generic active pharma ingredients (API) segment offset high costs of raw materials.

The Mumbai-based drug maker's profit rose to 1.05 billion rupees ($12.86 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 1.04 billion rupees a year ago.

The generic API segment, which contributes to almost 90% of the company's revenue, grew 1.8%, benefiting from a capacity expansion at the company's Dahej facility, as well as growth in its regulated markets business.

"India, Europe and Latin America were the main catalysts for growth whereas U.S. witnessed healthy recovery," said chief executive officer Yasir Rawjee.

The expansion for generic API products at the facility was completed with 240 KL capacity and was operational from this quarter.

Growth in this segment managed to offset the 12% jump in input cost and 31% decline in its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business.

"CDMO business was sluggish, and we expect it to pick up strongly from the fourth quarter onwards," said Rawjee.

Glenmark Life Sciences, which was spun off from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in 2019 to focus on the API business, posted revenue from operations of 5.41 billion rupees, up 3.5% from the previous year.

Glenmark Pharma will report its third quarter results on Feb.10.

As of 1:26 a.m. IST, shares of the company are down 0.7% after gaining 0.5% after the results. They fell 33.4% in 2022, while the Nifty pharma index dropped 11.43%.

($1 = 81.6180 Indian rupees)

 

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu and Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)