Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla reported a steeper-than-anticipated drop in first-quarter earnings on Thursday, continuing a streak of declining profits as generic cancer drug sales slowed and supply chain problems disrupted a tumor treatment in the United States.
The company’s consolidated net profit dropped 39.2% to 7.89 billion rupees — equivalent to about $81.73 million — for the quarter that ended June 30. This marked the third consecutive quarter of falling profits. Analysts had projected an average profit of 8.17 billion rupees, according to data from LSEG.
On the revenue side, the picture was slightly brighter. Revenue from operations climbed 2.3% to 71.19 billion rupees, edging past analyst estimates of 70.73 billion rupees.
India and North America together make up roughly two-thirds of Cipla’s total revenue.
The drugmaker has been working to grow its footprint in long-term chronic care treatments within India, and is counting on sales of the obesity medication Yurpeak, which it markets under a licensing arrangement with Eli Lilly.
India’s market for GLP-1 therapies — the drug class that includes Yurpeak — surpassed 2.2 billion rupees in June. Cipla had previously noted that Yurpeak captured a 15.7% share of that market.
The company has leaned more heavily on its home market in India to make up for softness in the United States, where sales of the generic form of Bristol Myers Squibb’s cancer drug Revlimid have fallen after the product lost its exclusivity status.
U.S. revenue took an additional hit from supply disruptions involving lanreotide, a medication used to treat rare tumors. The disruptions followed a U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection at the facility of Cipla’s sole supplier for the drug, which triggered a temporary halt in production.
(Exchange rate note: $1 = 96.5375 Indian rupees)
