How do you see Cipla in the next 10 years?
If you look at Cipla’s journey over 90 years, there have been phases of growth and diseases we’ve helped fight against. Respiratory was one such intervention. We led the shift from oral therapies to inhalation in India. Over the years that journey continued with transparent rotahalers, metered dose inhalers, breath-actuated devices, multidose DPIs like Synchrobreathe and Ciphaler, and newer molecules and innovations. HIV was another major crusade, especially in Africa. The ‘dollar-a-day’ initiative changed the landscape and saved millions of lives. Covid was another phase where supply interventions were very helpful in both India and globally. When we think about 100 years, we want to continue that journey-increasing access while building the business. India will continue to remain our largest market. We are No 1 by volume in India in IQVIA ranking. Respiratory remains a very important area, but we also want to double down on chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and obesity because these conditions impact a huge population.
What are your global ambitions?
North America is our next big market. Historically, we were present more through partnerships, but our direct front-end presence has developed over the last decade. The focus there will be on complex products-respiratory, peptides and oligonucleotides. We have four respiratory products expecting approval this year and another three peptides in the pipeline, including a big one. We plan to file almost 40-50 products globally over the next three years. We have two biosimilars under development for North America, and one is already under IND (investigational new drug) entering Phase 1 studies. Our plan is to add one to two biosimilars every year over the next five to six years so that we build a portfolio of around 10 products. Europe is another region where we are currently under-indexed relative to the opportunity, and we believe we can scale significantly there.
What role will innovation and AI play in Cipla’s next phase of growth?
Innovation is the next big thing. That’s a five-to-ten-year journey. By the time we reach our centenary, we would definitely want a meaningful chunk of revenues coming from innovation. The mainstay will still be generics-more than 80%. But that will increasingly be supplemented with innovation. We’ve already started building the blocks through stem cells, mRNA-related work and inhaled insulin. We also want to become an AI-first organisation. AI is already changing productivity and ways of working. The first step is to make all employees AI-literate and then identify processes where AI can make the maximum difference.How important would acquisitions be as part of your future strategy?
Cipla has not been acquisitive in so many years. What we have done so far is smaller partnerships and targeted stuff. In India, large acquisitions are unlikely because we are already number one by volume and there would be too much overlap. So, we will chase quality of business. We would want to go after segments where we see Cipla genuinely fulfilling some need gap. In the US and Europe, however, we would look at differentiated assets because they can strengthen both our market presence and our pipeline.
What are your plans in the cardio-metabolic space and obesity?
In India, we’ve been consistently launching diabetes and cardio products. In cardiology, our biggest brand is Dytor, which has become one of the largest brands in the category. In diabetes, we have launched all the SGLT2 products and partnered to bring in the DPP4 portfolio. We also launched inhaled insulin and market the entire insulin range from Eli Lilly. We’ve been accelerating in this segment for the last four to five years because we realised the patient population is vast while our presence was relatively smaller. On obesity, we partnered with Lilly because we saw it as the best-in-class molecule. Our focus for Yurpeak (tirzepatide) is beyond the metros, where our presence is deep, and we are seeing steady growth. Semaglutide, for us, is more of an international generics opportunity than an India opportunity because the Indian market is becoming very crowded.
Why stay focused on Lilly’s tirzepatide rather than semaglutide in India?
In this category, the amount of intervention required is significantly higher. It involves patient onboarding, disease management and field-force engagement. We felt it was better not to dilute our efforts. Because tirzepatide is a dual-receptor product, we see it as a bigger opportunity. At the same time, many generic players are entering semaglutide, and prices are already dropping sharply. We are clearly playing in the best-in-class segment rather than the mass market.
Investors appear optimistic about Cipla’s long-term growth despite near-term margin pressure. What are they seeing?
We had exclusivity on lenalidomide (Revlimid), and that exclusivity has now expired. The dip in profitability (in Q4) was anticipated. We have also invested heavily in alternate manufacturing sites in the US to de-risk our pipeline. Those facilities are ready, so the costs are flowing through before revenues begin. Looking ahead, we have four respiratory launches expected this year, including gVentolin (just happened), gSymbicort and gAdvair.