Mankind to expand gastro, derma presence, says MD Rajeev Juneja

Mint

27-05-2025

Mankind Pharma is focused on expanding its presence in the gastrointestinal and dermatology segments this year, as it looks at expanding its presence in the chronic segments, managing director Rajeev Juneja toldMintin an interview.
'We are not great in the gastro [segment]...we have decided that we are supposed to work a lot in gastro because it has become semi-chronic, and our inclination is towards the chronic side," Juneja said, adding thatgastro in India is one of the fastest-growing segments.
'Along with this, we are working on derma as well," he said.
The gastro segment grew 7.3% year on year in April, according to pharma intelligence platform Pharmarack.
Further, Mankind is developing a novel anti-obesity and diabetes drug in-house. The drug candidate, GRP119, is currently in phase 2 trials in Australia, and Juneja said that results are expected in the next six to nine months.
In FY25, Mankind signed a non-exclusive patent licensing agreement with Takeda Pharmaceuticals to commercialise its novel drug Vonoprazan, to treat Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).
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Juneja said that the company is evaluating all options to increase its presence in these therapy areas, including in-licensing products from innovators or small acquisitions.
'No past strategy can be guaranteed for future success. So we need to apply our mind and try to bring some kind of differentiation in whatever we do," said Juneja. 'The point is that once we decide that our intention is that we are supposed to be good on the gastro side, we start searching for avenues, we start searching for people, we start searching for products," he said.
The company will also continue to strengthen its leadership in the women's health segment, which received a boost last year through its acquisition of Bharat Serum and Vaccines (BSV).
With its foundation strengthened in FY25, Mankind aims to grow 1.2 to 1.3 times the Indian pharmaceutical market. Juneja said this will be driven by its focus on its chronic domestic formulations portfolio.
Juneja said the focus is also on growing larger brands, from the current ₹50 crore to ₹100 crore brands for products to ₹500 crore brands.
'This is the strategy we basically want to pursue in future, because we have seen that once you create that kind of a brand, that's a very big entry barrier," he added.
BSV acquisition
Mankind is on track with the integration of BSV, which it acquired for ₹13,768 crore in October 2024. The integration will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and external debt.
Juneja said the company focused on removing the 'extra flab" and bringing in the right talent for the acquired entity in FY25. This year, he expects 18-20% growth from the BSV portfolio. The goal is to increase the reach and awareness of BSV's niche super-speciality products.
BSV is working on two biosimilars, the company's investor presentation highlighted, although Juneja declined to share more details on the BSV pipeline.
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Vishal Manchanda, senior vice president of Institutional Equities at Systematix Group, toldMintthat BSV's platform and skillset for making recombinant drugs (created by inserting genes from one species into a host species) can be leveraged to make biosimilars.
Select companies in India, including Biocon, are skilled at the recombinant process. However, Manchanda pointed out that Mankind has the potential to scale this up meaningfully.
Innovation push
'If you're a pharma company, naturally, you gain respect once you have great R&D," Juneja said. 'We started our own R&D in Mankind 13-14 years back…going forward, we'll be putting a bit more money in the R&D side…our R&D expenses will increase because that would be the future need as well."
'We wish to become a bigger company…our dream is to become India's number one company on the domestic side," Juneja said, adding that 'we need to have certain innovative products, and we are working for that".
Mankind's focus on innovation and speciality segments comes as the Indian pharmaceutical market has become more crowded. Most segments already have established market leaders.
'…the promoters are realising that there is a challenge to growth. And they know the space they have been playing in is now kind of difficult to expand from where they are, meaningfully expand from where they are. So I think Mankind promoters being extremely committed to India business, they are also kind of prepared on how to take this forward," Manchanda said.
'What they are actually looking for is a bigger avenue to build growth on," he added, referring to Mankind's BSV acquisition.
Internal corrections
Mankind undertook several internal correction initiatives in the last year, including leadership changes and improving synergies between its divisions, Juneja said.
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'If you look at the history of Mankind, in 30 years, we have become the fourth largest company," Juneja said, adding that for any company growing very fast, there comes a time when growth plateaus.
'But once you bring commercial excellence, you bring people from outside…a number of flaws can come in front of you, and you have two choices: Either to remove those flaws gradually without affecting your sales and profit and growth, or second, do it immediately," Juneja said.
'We belong to the second category, and we decided that by March 2025, we'll clean up Mankind from every side," he added.