New Delhi: Sun Pharma Thursday said its consolidated net profit rose by 15 percent to Rs 1,572 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.
The drug major had posted a net profit of Rs 1,362 crore during the same period of previous fiscal.
Net sales of the company rose to Rs 4,751 crore for the second quarter, up 13 percent, from the same period of previous fiscal, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said in a filing to the BSE.
"Our Q2 performance was strong and continued to achieve high level of profitable growth, in-line with our expectations, " Sun Pharma Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi said.
The company remains focused on strengthening its existing businesses and developing a differentiated and specialty product basket as well as planning for the Ranbaxy integration, he added.
In a separate filing, the company said its board has approved merger of Sun Pharma Global Inc, a wholly owned foreign subsidiary of the company, with itself, with effect from January 1, 2015.
Sun Pharma shares closed marginally up 0.26 percent at Rs 908.60 apeice on the BSE.
Branded generic sales in India stood at Rs 1,152 crore, up by 21 percent over Q2 last year. The US finished dosage sales at USD 481 million grew by 15 percent over Q2 last fiscal with Taro driving the overall growth, Sun Pharma said.
The company also continued to invest in research and development and consolidated R&D expense for Q2 FY15 was Rs 312 crore, or 6.6 percent of sales, it said.
During the quarter under consideration Sun Pharma and Merck & Co Inc entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for Merck's investigational therapeutic antibody candidate, tildrakizumab, (MK-3222), which is currently being evaluated in Phase III registration trials for the treatment of chronic plaque psoriasis, a skin ailment, the company said.
