Drugmaker Wockhardt Q1 net profit plunges 94 pct on plant bans

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd on Tuesday said its quarterly net profit plunged 94 percent, as U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans on its manufacturing plants continued to take a toll.

Wockhardt's April-June net profit was 199.5 million rupees($3.26 million), compared with 3.23 billion rupees a year earlier.

Net sales slumped 27 percent to 9.91 billion rupees.

The United States is Wockhardt's biggest market and the FDA has banned the import of generic drugs from two of the company's plants in India, citing quality lapses in the manufacturing process.

In May, the company said the FDA had also expressed concerns over production processes at its Chicago-based Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals unit, which accounts for more than 50 percent of Wockhardt's sales in the United States.

 

Wockhardt shares fell 5 percent to 674 rupees by 0627 GMT on Nifty that was up 0.54 percent.

($1 = 61.1700 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)