Aurobindo Pharma plunges 9% as USFDA issues 14 observations

NEW DELHI: Shares of Aurobindo Pharma tumbled 9 per cent in Thursday’s trade after US drug regulator issued 'Form 483' with 14 observations to the company's injectable formulation manufacturing facility at Pashamylaram, Hyderabad.

The Unit IV of the facility was inspected by USFDA from November 4 to November 13.

“We believe that none of these observations are related to data integrity issues. The company will respond to the USFDA within the stipulated timeline,” Aurobindo Pharma said in a note.

But the statement could not stop the scrip from falling 8.9 per cent to Rs 394.70. This was the lowest level for the scrip since October 7.

The drugmaker reported a 4.6 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 639.5 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 611.4 crore in the corresponding period in previous fiscal, Aurobindo Pharma said in a BSE filing.

Aurobindo Pharma's revenue increased 17.9 per cent to Rs 5,600.5 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 4,751.4 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

The company’s board approved an interim dividend of Re 1.25 per equity share of Re 1 for the year 2019-20.

"We had another quarter of healthy performance where we continued to grow in US and Europe, which are our focused geographies," Aurobindo Pharma Managing Director N Govindarajan said.

He added that the company's R&D initiatives have been progressing well across the products basket.