Mumbai: Piramal Pharma has no plans to enter domestic prescription formulations business for now, chairperson Nandini Piramal told ET, putting to rest speculations that the company is evaluating acquisitions in this space.
The company, however, may consider acquiring over-the-counter (OTC) portfolios or individual brands and products for its India-focused consumer healthcare business, which crossed the strategic revenue milestone of ₹1,000 crore in FY25. It may also evaluate targets in its global complex hospital generics business.
Piramal explained that rivals that already have a prescription business would be willing to pay more for an acquisition target as they would get immediate synergies. "So, the amount that they can afford to pay versus us...we wouldn't have that," she said.
Piramal Pharma sold its domestic formulation business to Abbott for $3.8 billion in 2010.
On its future growth strategy, the chairperson said the company will continue to focus on organic brownfield expansion in the drug development and manufacturing service business, or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation ( CDMO).
The company is looking at capex of $100-125 million, she said.
Talking about the current global headwinds, Piramal said near-term macroeconomic uncertainty and uneven improvement in biotech funding is leading to customers taking more time to decide and place orders, thus leading to lower capacity utilisation in the overseas CDMO sites.
However, the company's India sites are running at a healthy utilisation level, she said. "In many of our overseas sites, we have recently made investments and hence their utilisation will gradually pick up as we fill them with new orders," she added.
About 69% of Piramal Pharma's revenue comes from regulated markets like the US, UK, Europe and Japan.
On overall future product pipeline, Piramal said there are 31 products in phase 3 trial, 30 in phase 2, and 177 in phase 1.
The company posted 8% year-on-year growth in revenue from operations for the fourth quarter of FY25 ended March and 12% growth for the full fiscal, driven primarily by CDMO business, especially from on-patent commercial manufacturing.
Its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio improved to 2.7x in FY25 versus 5.6x in FY23.
The company, however, may consider acquiring over-the-counter (OTC) portfolios or individual brands and products for its India-focused consumer healthcare business, which crossed the strategic revenue milestone of ₹1,000 crore in FY25. It may also evaluate targets in its global complex hospital generics business.
Piramal explained that rivals that already have a prescription business would be willing to pay more for an acquisition target as they would get immediate synergies. "So, the amount that they can afford to pay versus us...we wouldn't have that," she said.
Piramal Pharma sold its domestic formulation business to Abbott for $3.8 billion in 2010.
On its future growth strategy, the chairperson said the company will continue to focus on organic brownfield expansion in the drug development and manufacturing service business, or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation ( CDMO).
The company is looking at capex of $100-125 million, she said.
Talking about the current global headwinds, Piramal said near-term macroeconomic uncertainty and uneven improvement in biotech funding is leading to customers taking more time to decide and place orders, thus leading to lower capacity utilisation in the overseas CDMO sites.
However, the company's India sites are running at a healthy utilisation level, she said. "In many of our overseas sites, we have recently made investments and hence their utilisation will gradually pick up as we fill them with new orders," she added.
About 69% of Piramal Pharma's revenue comes from regulated markets like the US, UK, Europe and Japan.
On overall future product pipeline, Piramal said there are 31 products in phase 3 trial, 30 in phase 2, and 177 in phase 1.
The company posted 8% year-on-year growth in revenue from operations for the fourth quarter of FY25 ended March and 12% growth for the full fiscal, driven primarily by CDMO business, especially from on-patent commercial manufacturing.
Its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio improved to 2.7x in FY25 versus 5.6x in FY23.
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