Specialty scale-up, product mix: Sun's medicine cabinet piques brokerages

In the near term, higher R&D costs and a recent acquisition to weigh on earnings growth

India’s largest listed pharmaceutical (pharma) company — Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Sun Pharma) — is expected to maintain its outperformance vis-à-vis the sector’s, as its multiple bets on specialty products, improving product mix, recent acquisitions, and branded business are finding favour with brokerages.

While it has gained 7 per cent over the past year, the Nifty Pharma Index is down 13.6 per cent. Its outperformance over two years has been fairly evident, with the market leader gaining 66 per cent to Nifty Pharma’s minus 1.4 per cent.

Although analysts have reduced their near-term earnings estimates, given the ongoing investments, higher research