Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s revenue from operations for the April-June period beat Street expectations to rise 9.4% year-on-year to ₹13,851 crore. However, the drugmaker’s net profit fell on exceptional items including settlement costs in a pricing antitrust litigation in the US and discontinuing clinical studies on one of its drugs.
The company posted a net profit of ₹2,279 crore in Q1FY26, down 20% from a year earlier.
A healthy double-digit growth in its India business and innovative medicines pipeline boosted its revenue and Ebitda margins during the quarter. The drugmaker has been banking on both segments to drive growth in FY26.
Its adjusted net profit, excluding the exceptional items, for Q1FY26 was ₹2,996 crore, up 5.7%, Sun Pharma said in an exchange filing on Thursday.
“Sun had a strong performance during the quarter, where the overall growth reflects steady progress across all our markets. India continues to show strong momentum, contributing meaningfully to our performance,” chairman and managing director Dilip Shanghvi said in the statement.
Sun Pharma and its subsidiary Taro Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $200 million to settle a generics antitrust pricing litigation in the US earlier this month. The company also announced that it was discontinuing studies on its drug candidate SCD-044 for atopic dermatitis, after the drug did not meet primary objectives in phase-2 trials.
A Bloomberg poll of 14 brokerages had estimated the firm’s revenue to be ₹13,699 crore, and its profit after tax at ₹3,042 crore.
Sun Pharma reported an Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of ₹4,302 crore, up 19.2%, with the margin expanding to 31.1%.
The increase in Ebitda margin was on account of improvement in raw material costs, as well as higher sales of its global specialty products and domestic branded formulations, the company’s chief financial officer Jayashree Satagopan told investors in a post-earnings call on Thursday evening.
Sun Pharma’s share price settled 2% lower at ₹1,700 on the NSE on Thursday.
Robust India, specialty growth
Sun Pharma’s domestic business saw robust double-digit growth, maintaining its momentum. India formulation sales rose 13.9% YoY to ₹4,721 crore. The growth was driven by an increase in volume as well as new product launches, as opposed to the overall Indian pharmaceutical market which is largely growing on the back of price increases.
The company saw an uptick in its global specialty or innovative medicines sales, rising 16.9% to $311 million. This segment accounted for 19.3% of its quarterly sales and drove up the overall US sales.
The company reported overall US sales of $473 million, up 1.4%. “This growth is driven by our innovative medicines portfolio with all of our growth products contributing, including Ilumya, Cequa, Winlevi, and Odomzo, but offset by decline in our generics business due to additional competition in certain products,” Richard Ascroft, North America chief executive officer, told investors, adding that the company is seeing contingent pricing pressure from blood cancer drug Revlimid, which is set to lose exclusivity next year.
The US accounted for 29.3% of consolidated sales for the quarter.
Sun Pharma launched its drug for severe alopecia areata, Leqselvi, in the US during the quarter. “We’re very encouraged by early results, we’ve seen good receptivity with healthcare professionals and patients, and we already have our initial commercial prescriptions,” said Ascroft.
Sun Pharma is gearing up for the launch of cancer drug Unloxcyt in the second half of FY26, the company said.
