India's GlaxoSmithKline Pharma's pre-tax profit falls on govt pricing caps

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals

17/05/2023 14:25

BENGALURU, May 17 (Reuters) - India's GlaxoSmithKline
Pharmaceuticals Ltd  GLAX.NS  reported an 8.6% fall in its
pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter on Wednesday, hurt by the
government's curbs on pricing of some essential medicines.
    Consolidated profit before tax dropped to 1.90 billion
rupees ($23.23 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from
2.08 billion rupees a year earlier, the Indian unit of UK's GSK
Plc  GSK.L  said in an exchange filing.
    Revenue from operations at the maker of Augmentin antibiotic
and T-Bact ointment fell 2.7% to 7.87 billion rupees.
    "A robust underlying volume growth was offset by the impact
of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2022," the
company said.
    GlaxoSmithKline's Ceftum and T-Bact, used to treat bacterial
infections, were included in the NLEM list, which mandates those
medicines to be sold below a price ceiling set by a government
pricing body.
    In March, the company said the revenue share of drugs
impacted by the pricing cap was at 42% so far in 2023, up from
33% in 2022.
    The company plans to mitigate the impact of the price caps
by boosting sales volumes of its Ceftum, T-Bact and Augmentin.
    Separately, the company recommended a dividend of 32 rupees
per share.
    Shares of the drugmaker closed 0.43% higher before the
results, compared with a 0.45% fall in the benchmark Nifty
Pharma index  .NIPHARM .

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon, Chris Thomas and Manvi Pant in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com;
manvi.pant@thomsonreuters.com))