Cipla’s stellar performance for the June quarter was largely driven by strong domestic growth and exclusive revenues from supply of generic version of anti-depressant drug Lexapro to Teva.
The 23 per cent revenue growth at Rs 1,958 crore, was helped by a strong 22.9 per cent jump in export formulations and an impressive 30.4 per cent rise in the domestic formulations revenues. Revenues from active pharma ingredient segment declined 1.7 per cent.
Robust domestic growth was supported by strong offtake of the company’s antibiotics (growth in excess of 20 per cent) and anti-asthma products (high teen growth).
In the domestic market, Cipla's brands made good headway with branded business growing at 23 per cent, while the unbranded generic business posted 6 per cent growth.
Higher contribution from domestic market and high-margin exclusive sales and a decline in sales of low margin anti-retirovirals (anti-HIV) helped a 4.6 percentage point expansion in Cipla's gross margins to 62.6 per cent.
Despite higher staff and other costs, lower interest outgo (declined by 74 per cent) and higher other income (Rs 23 crore forex gain), helped Cipla post a 59 per cent in the net profit to Rs 400 crore.
The management is confident of sustaining domestic growth upwards of 16 per cent.
This coupled with upcoming supply opportunities for products like Dymista (Meda’s Allergic Rhinitis) drug, should help the company sustain growth momentum over the next two quarters.