Drugmaker Abbott India posts Q4 profit rise on higher sales

BENGALURU, May 9 (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Abbott India reported a 24% rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, as strong sales outpaced the impact of government pricing caps on certain medicines.

The company, which makes the popular antacid medicine Digene, said its profit rose to 2.87 billion rupees ($34.3 million) for the three months ended March 31, from 2.31 billion rupees a year earlier.

Revenues of drugmakers such as Abbott India and GlaxoSmithKline Pharma India, which get most of their business from India, have been impacted after the inclusion of some of their drugs in the government's essential medicines list in September 2022, making them susceptible to price caps.

Abbott, which is a unit of U.S. healthcare firm Abbott Laboratories, has been trying to mitigate the impact of pricing curbs by driving up sales and cutting back on expenses.

The company, which makes drugs including hypothyroidism treatment tablets Thyronorm, said its revenue from operations rose 7% to 14.39 billion rupees in the fourth quarter.

The company declared a dividend of 410 rupees per share for fiscal year 2024.

($1 = 83.4760 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)