Medicine shelves in a pharmacy dispensary. File photo; it does not show a Raia or Drogasil store. Photo: Rio Times archive.

RD Saúde, formerly Raia Drogasil and owner of pharmacy chains including Raia and Drogasil, earned an adjusted 439 million reais (about US$80 million) in the third quarter of 2026. Adjusted means before one-off items, and the figure is 9.2% more than a year earlier, on sales that grew 16%.

Brazil’s pharmacies are a window on Brazilian household spending, and US investors can follow the company through its São Paulo-listed shares. Our Brazil coverage tracks the consumer backdrop.

What RD Saúde Reported

The company published its third-quarter results on Tuesday 3 November 2026, after trading ended. Gross revenue reached 13.16 billion reais (about US$2.41 billion), up 16% and about 1.8 billion reais (about US$330 million) higher than a year earlier.

Adjusted net income was 439.1 million reais (about US$80 million), while profit under the international accounting standard IFRS 16 was 408.2 million reais (about US$75 million). Adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit before interest, tax and depreciation, rose 14.7% to about 1.02 billion reais (about US$188 million).

Why Growth Looks Slower Than It Is

RD Saúde sold 4Bio, a specialty-medicine business that earned profit in the third quarter of 2025. The company says that if 4Bio’s 2025 result and the financial income from the 2026 sale are removed, profit growth would have been 20.1%.

That is a much stronger picture than the headline 9.2%. It shows the core pharmacy business growing faster than the reported figure suggests.

Avenida Paulista, São Paulo’s main business avenue, at dusk. File photo; it does not show an RD Saúde site. Photo: Rio Times archive.

Online Sales and the Store Network

Digital sales reached 3.8 billion reais (about US$696 million), up 27.2%, and made up 29.4% of retail revenue. The chain ended September with 3,770 pharmacies, against 3,453 a year earlier.

Adjusted net debt fell 15.4% to about 2.94 billion reais (about US$538 million). Dollar figures here use 5.46 reais per dollar, the market-data rate from RT, a financial data provider, on 5 November 2026.

What It Means for You

If you hold Brazilian stocks through a US fund, RD Saúde is a bet on steady consumer spending rather than on commodities. Its shares closed at 15.44 reais (about US$2.83) on Wednesday 4 November, up 3.9% from 14.86 reais the day before.

Analysts’ average forecast, called the consensus, for earnings per share was about 0.26 reais in the RT data feed, against 0.25 reais reported there. That points to a quarter slightly below market hopes, though the feed does not say whether it uses adjusted figures.

What Is Not Known

The figures above do not show how much of the 16% sales growth came from higher prices and how much from more customers. They also do not show whether the 4Bio effect will fade in the next quarter.

It is not known whether online growth can stay near 27% as the base gets larger. The next results will show whether margins, which slipped slightly, recover.

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is RD Saúde?

RD Saúde, formerly Raia Drogasil, owns pharmacy chains including Raia and Drogasil. Its shares trade in São Paulo under the ticker RADL3.

How Much Did RD Saúde Earn in the Third Quarter of 2026?

Adjusted net income was 439.1 million reais (about US$80 million), up 9.2% from a year earlier. Gross revenue was 13.16 billion reais (about US$2.41 billion), up 16%.

Why Is Profit Growth Only 9.2%?

The comparison includes profit from 4Bio, a business RD Saúde sold, and income from that sale. Without both, the company says profit would have grown 20.1%.

How Many Pharmacies Does RD Saúde Operate?

It ran 3,770 pharmacies at the end of September 2026, against 3,453 a year earlier. Online sales were 29.4% of retail revenue.

Sources: RD Saúde investor relations, earnings release for the third quarter of 2026 (ri.rdsaude.com.br), 3 November 2026; RT market data, USD/BRL and RADL3 closing prices, 4 and 5 November 2026.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI ·