Cipla sees weight-loss drugs as the biggest opportunity in the Indian market

Mint

4 days ago

Drugmaker Cipla Ltd anticipates GLP-1 drugs, used for treating type-2 diabetes and obesity, to be a definite new therapy in the Indian market, and is exploring a wider foray, said chief executive Umang Vohra.
'The Indian market is particularly important to us, where we're looking at the whole GLP-1 category and not just Semaglutide alone,' Vohra told reporters in a media interaction on Friday after the company declared its June-quarter results.
Semaglutide, a GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drug sold under the brand name Wegovy in India by Novo Nordisk, goes off patent in March 2026.
'Our overall thinking is this is going to be pretty definitive in terms of a new therapy, in terms of a new section of the market and an opportunity that will be probably the biggest that we've seen in the last five years,' said Vohra. 'We're trying to evolve a strategy on what would make the most economic sense for us in this category.'
The company also plans to launch Semaglutide in other markets where it goes off patent, although Vohra declined to name specific markets. Cipla will file to commercialize the product with partners as well as on its own, in what Vohra called a 'combination strategy'.
'We're going to be perhaps making two filings in some of the markets that are of importance across the world,' he said.
The patent for Semaglutide is expiring in countries such as India, Canada, and Brazil in 2026.
Cipla's first-quarter profit after tax (PAT) beat estimates, while its revenue was a miss. The company reported a PAT of ₹ 1,298 crore, up 10% year-on-year, against ₹ 1,198.5 crore, estimated by a Bloomberg poll of 22 brokerages.
At ₹ 6,957 crore, its consolidated revenue increased 4% on-year but missed Bloomberg estimates of ₹ 7,057 crore.
The company reported an Ebitda of ₹ 1,778 crore, up 4% on-year, with its Ebitda margin remaining steady on-year at 25.6%. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
'Underlying this performance has been the numbers from the One India business, which grew overall at 6% and within that, we've seen a higher growth from our [trade] generics and consumer healthcare business,' said Vohra, adding that branded prescription growth was lower on account of a muted season for acute therapies.
The company reported $226 million in revenue from its North America business during the quarter, a drop of 9.6% from the previous year's revenue of $250 million. The North American business accounts for 28% of Cipla's revenues.
'This is in the range that we had guided at the beginning of this quarter…We've had two new launches, and our launch momentum hopes to continue as the rest of the year pans out,' Vohra said.
While uncertainty over tariffs and regulatory shifts in the US continues, Vohra said Cipla's business is already significantly derisked.
'Fortunately or unfortunately, because of our facility issues that we've had in the last three years, due to citations at our sites, we had already started de-risking our business. And we built new facilities in the US,' he said.
Vohra said while the firm expects some impact from US policy changes, it won't be a debilitating effect that will 'derail the way we've thought about our business'.
Cipla also faces price erosion on blood cancer drug Revlimid and Lanreotide, used to treat neuroendocrine tumours, in the US this year. However, Vohra believes that the company has a product pipeline that will continue to drive growth over the next three to five years.
Cipla's share price closed at ₹ 1,535.00 on Friday on National Stock Exchange, up 3.17%.