Expect high teens growth from US market, says Strides Pharma

After reporting a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 43.81 crore from operations for the March 2019 quarter, drug firm Strides Pharma Science on Friday said it is expecting high teens growth from the US market.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Arun Kumar, managing director and group chief executive officer, said the US is the largest regulated market that Strides operates in, "The company has more than doubled the revenues from the US and believe it would remain an important market for the company."

Kumar said Strides has several new products that are already approved but haven’t been commercialised yet, "However, Strides will commercialise these products at the appropriate time when it comes in terms of pricing and profitability."

"The quarter-on-quarter growth for US business, which was on a low base may not be sustainable going forward. The company has grown over 80 percent in the last fiscal from the US. The US exit rate was $200 million in FY19 and so that would be the base number for the year for this year,” he added.

With regards to Puducherry facility, which was classified as official action initiated (OAI) by the US health regulator, Kumar said Strides currently has enough momentum in the pipeline of products and so the numbers are not going to be impacted by the regulatory actions."

On the emerging market businesses, he said, “We have done several initiatives in brands business Africa and also in the manufacturing base in Kenya. All these course corrections will come through. We believe the business is not going to grow significantly from a revenue standpoint but in terms of profit and quality of business, there would be significant improvements," Kumar said.