Drugmaker Abbott India's Q3 profit rises on strong demand

Abbott India

01/02/2024 12:46

BENGALURU, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical firm Abbott
India  ABOT.NS  reported a 26% rise in third-quarter profit on
Thursday, as higher sales outpaced the impact of a pricing cap
on certain medicines.
    The company, which makes popular antacid medicine Digene,
said its profit rose to 3.11 billion rupees ($37.5 million) from
2.47 billion rupees a year earlier. 
    Revenues of drugmakers such as Abbott India, which get most
of their business from India, continued to be affected during
the quarter as some of their key drugs were included in the
government's essential medicines list in September 2022, making
them susceptible to price caps. 
    This was also highlighted by GlaxoSmithKline Pharma
 GLAX.NS  in its previous earnings.
    Abbott, which is a unit of U.S. healthcare firm Abbott
Laboratories  ABT.N , has been trying to mitigate the impact of
pricing curbs by driving up sales and cutting back on expenses. 
    The company, which makes drugs including hypothyroidism
treatment tablets Thyronorm, said its revenue from operations
rose nearly 9% to 14.37 billion rupees. 
    Peer GlaxoSmithKline Pharma is set to report its
December-quarter results next week. 
    Shares of Abbott India settled flat ahead of results. 
    
($1 = 82.9510 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia
Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com;))