Sun Pharma first-quarter profit boosted by Gleevec generic

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd , India's largest drugmaker, reported a quarterly profit that beat analysts' estimates, helped by its exclusive launch of the first generic version of leukaemia drug Gleevec in the United States.

Net profit for the April-June quarter was 20.34 billion rupees ($304.17 million). Sun had reported a profit of 5.56 billion rupees a year ago, hurt by a big charge related to remediation costs at its drug factories.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 19.04 billion rupees for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sun launched its generic Gleevec in February, pricing it about 30 percent lower than the original drug's annual price of around $90,000. The company has a six-month exclusivity on the market, and hopes to poach a third of the sales in that time, Sun's North American chief executive Kal Sundaram told Reuters in February.

 

($1 = 66.8700 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)