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India's Cipla beats quarterly profit, banks on new drug launches for growth
By Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon - 5/13/2025
By Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon
(Reuters) -Cipla, India's third-largest drugmaker by sales, posted fourth-quarter profit above estimates on Tuesday and said it will focus on new drug launches in the key domestic and U.S. markets to drive growth in the coming years.
In India, its largest market by sales, Cipla plans to launch innovative drugs and expand its portfolio in diabetes, neurology, and cardiac therapies. The company said weight-loss drugs will also be a key growth driver in India and emerging markets.
India's generic drugmakers including Cipla are in a race to launch cheaper versions of the innovative obesity drug after its active component Semaglutide goes off patent in 2026.
For North America, Cipla is focusing on peptides and complex generics, with some launches expected between FY26 and FY28, the company said.
“We’ve got some of our inhalers not yet approved, which probably should also come in between the later half of H1, early H2. So I think we have enough arsenal in just our portfolio and pipeline for the US to continue to show growth,” global CEO Umang Vohra said on a post-earnings call.
Indian drugmakers deriving significant U.S. revenue from low-cost generics have been on edge after President Donald Trump’s tariff threat. In the wake of that and the India-Pakistan conflict, Vohra said that there could be more certainty (in the business and market) after six months.
"(The) company has announced interesting development of its R&D, launch pipeline indicating future product mix changing to more complex products and likely a good capital allocation,” Shrikant Akolkar, analyst at Nuvama Institutional Equities, said.
Cipla reported a consolidated net profit of 12.22 billion rupees ($143.5 million) for the January–March quarter, beating estimates of 10.24 billion rupees, according to estimates complied by LSEG.
Revenue rose 9.2% to 67.3 billion rupees, led by respiratory drug demand. Revenue in India rose 8.5%, while North America grew 2%.
($1 = 85.1560 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Eileen Soreng)