Dr Reddy's second-quarter profit falls 17 percent

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, India's second-largest drugmaker by revenue, reported a 17 percent drop in its second-quarter profit due to higher costs, pushing its shares down nearly 3 percent on Wednesday.

The company also said it bought the rights to sell the nicotine patch Habitrol in the United States from Novartis Consumer Health Inc, a unit of Swiss firm Novartis .

The agreement was entered into on Oct. 18 and is subject to a review by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Dr Reddy's said in a statement to the exchanges, without disclosing further details.

The company reported a net profit of 5.74 billion rupees ($93.6 million) for the quarter ended September, down from 6.90 billion rupees a year earlier.

 

Dr Reddy's shares were down 1.8 percent at 3,025 rupees at 1:11 p.m, while the Nifty was up 0.46 percent.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)