Sun Pharma questions pandemic effects on business

Published: 3-Aug-2020

Director has said performance reflects the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic but vertical integration has benefitted supply chain for formulations

Sun Pharma has reported its first-quarter results. Like almost every business, this year showed impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, a decline of about 9.6% in consolidated sales over same quarter last year.

Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director, said: "The Q1 performance reflects the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown across markets and is not an indicator of the underlying strength of our business."

"Despite challenging conditions, we have done well and have not lost market share for any of our key speciality products in the US," Shanghvi added. "We have also maintained our market share in the Indian domestic market. Our timely risk mitigation initiatives ensured smooth operations of our manufacturing network, thereby maintaining continuous supplies of drugs. In the meantime, we continue to focus on serving our patients and customers, ensuring safety of our employees and business continuity."

APIs

"Our API business imparts benefits of vertical integration and continuity of supply chain for our formulations business. We continue to increase the API supply for captive consumption for key products," the Sun Pharma statement read.

Worldwide

Sales of branded formulations in India actually improved from the same time last year, and the company actually launched ten new products in this market.

We have maintained our market share in the Indian domestic market

The US still accounted for around 29% of sales, though this was a decrease compared to last year. There were anomalous events in both 2019 and 2020 so these are numbers were not hugely meaningful.

Sun Pharma-owned Taro Pharma also reported settlements and loss contingencies of US$ 478.9m, as a result of a one-time settlement related to the global resolution of the Department of Justice investigations into the US generic pharmaceutical industry.

Outside the US and the domestic Indian market the company also saw declines, though it can't be known how much of this exactly can be attributed to the current global situation.

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