Glenmark results show US generics story still going strong

A day after Lupin announced its financial results and posted strong performance in the US generics business, Glenmark has come up with growth numbers for its US business underlining the fact that the international generics story, particularly in the important US market, continues to remain strong for Indian pharma companies. This is despite all the concerns about quality and manufacturing in India, expressed by the USFDA.

Glenmark Generics Inc., US registered revenue from sale of finished dosage formulations of Rs 5,008.52 million ($81.09 million) for the quarter ended Mar 31, 2014 against revenue of Rs. 4,291.36 million ($79.05 Mn) for the previous corresponding quarter, recording an increase of 16.71 per cent. For the year as a whole, 2013/14, Glenmark's consolidated revenue grew 19.81 per cent to Rs. 60,069.35 million ($994.09 million).

Pointing out that the company had launched eight products in the US market, which drew the revenues from the region, Glenn Saldanha, chairman & managing director, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, told Business Today, that he was confident the company would be able to sustain its growth in the US, where, he says, the company today sells in all about 90 products.

On the profitability of the global business compared to India, he says, "We continue to perform well across the board and profitability looks pretty decent in most of the markets we operate in (read: other than US, Europe and India, markets of Asia, Africa, the CIS region and Latin America). 

Apart from the US business, analysts have been looking closely at the performance of the India business of the leading Indian pharma companies as they have slipped in some cases on account of issues around the price control of essential drugs.

Lupin, for instance, on Wednesday posted about 5 per cent growth in the India business. On this, Saldanha says, "We are still much smaller in the Indian market so we see lot of headroom to continue to grow in India and I think this will play out in this year (FY15) also."