BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian generic drugmaker Lupin reported a smaller-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit on Monday, as higher raw material costs more than offset strong demand for its drugs in North America and domestic markets.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Indian generic drugmakers Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries have benefited from strong sales and price recovery in the key U.S. market amid buoyant demand for their generic versions of the blockbuster cancer drug, Revlimid.

Analysts expect Lupin to have gained from launch ramp-ups of drugs with limited competition, such as its copycat version of asthma drug Spiriva Handihaler, which was launched by the drugmaker in June 2023.

In March, Lupin decided to carve out its trade generics business in India into a separate unit, Lupin Life Sciences. The business sells branded prescription and consumer health products such as immunity supplement Be One capsule.

BY THE NUMBERS

Consolidated profit after tax rose around 52% to 3.59 billion rupees ($43 million) for the quarter ended March 31, but fell short of analysts' average estimate of 5.16 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

This is the company's fifth straight quarter of profit growth.

Total revenue rose 12% to 49.61 billion rupees.

However, raw material costs jumped 20% and the company incurred an impairment charge of 2.01 billion rupees related to certain assets during the current quarter and year ended March 31.

Sales in North America grew 22.6%, while domestic sales climbed 8.3% in the quarter. India and the U.S. contributed around 70% to Lupin's total revenue.

($1 = 83.4800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Devika Syamnath)