Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the conference call of Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited to discuss acquisition of Curatio Healthcare (I) Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aman Mehta, Whole-t ime Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the investor call for the discussion of the acquisition of Curatio Healthcare announced today. The purpose of this call is to share some further details on the rationale behind the acquisition and the plans that we have in place for integration of the business. Just to share some highlights, the deal is valued at an enterprise value of INR 1,885 crore. The revenue in FY 2022 is INR 224 crore for Curatio. YTD growth is looking pretty healthy at 25%. Going forward, we believe that a similar level of growth in this year may sustain till the end of the year.
The rationale behind the acquisition is part of our overall capital allocation approach that we've been sharing for the last several quarters of focusing more on the India market and filling our therapy gaps through inorganic acquisitions. Curatio fits in quite well here because while Torrent does have a presence in dermatology and cosmetic dermatology, we are a fairly small player currently. Our existing business rank is about 21 in dermatology. We have a strong brand, Ahaglow, which is about INR 70 crore, growing quite well. Rest of the portfolio is quite small and niche, and so about INR 120 crore on the dermatology business that we have as the existing base business.
What Curatio brings to us is a completely complementary set of brands in a segment where we don't have much of a presence. This is more of a specialized portfolio in pediatric dermatology. It's a part of both cosmetic and pediatric dermatology. The existing Curatio business covers a wide number of pediatricians, which Torrent currently does not cover. The base of the business is really driven by brands that are focused on infant treatment or infant care or infant wellness and treatment, and led by this spearhead brand, Tedibar. Tedibar had the sales of about INR 76 crore in the previous financial year and is growing at about 15% this year.
Tedibar is prescribed for the treatment of atopic dermatitis across all pediatricians and dermatologists. This is a segment that has an increasing prevalence across the country. While the existing base would continue to grow at this similar level of high double digits, we believe there is further potential to increase the reach across pediatricians in the country. Currently there is a high skewness in regional contribution that the business has, more particularly towards the south zone and west zone. This is also where the general cosmetic dermatology market is skewed towards. There is a potential to create further awareness in the north and east markets.
Once we start adding more prescribers in the field force and adding more coverage, the intent is to increase the, and make it a more even national contribution. Though it may not be significantly higher or may not happen immediately because the market is skewed in these two regions. Apart from Tedibar, there are other very strong brands with high market share in the portfolio. Atogla is one, which is actually the brand that the company started with in about 2005, 2006. It's also for the same indication, atopic dermatitis, used for. It's a lotion used for treatment of atopic dermatitis.
This brand is around INR 32 crore, 30-odd crore sorry, in this financial year, and also growing very fast, high market share, and all falls under the theme of the increasing prevalence of atopic dermatitis in the country. Beyond this portfolio, beyond these brands, there are also similar pediatric cosmetology brands that are part of the basket. Many would have been recently launched but have niche indications where Curatio has been first to launch to the market and hence has that advantage in mindshare of prescribers. There are also additional medical dermatology brands which are fairly small in nature but can grow further with higher coverage.
The idea is to build further on the existing base of those INR 224 crore. We expect that this year the growth should sustain and possibly touch about INR 275 crore. The gross margins of the business are quite identical to the base business that we have currently, the Torrent India business. While the margins of the acquired business are slightly lower, I think there is a possibility to bring these margins up to the existing India-based business level in the near term. There are possibilities for synergies both on the cost and revenue side that we see visible and hopefully should start playing out within the next couple of quarters.
We will keep everyone informed on the progress as we move along. I have Sudhir with me as CFO here as well. We'll open up to questions for the listeners. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Shyam Rathi from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on this deal. Couple of questions. Firstly, I mean, if you look at the previous acquisitions by Torrent, I mean generally has been very reasonably valued. This slightly looks on the higher side of case on the EV to revenue, comes to around 8x+ on FY 22 basis, despite the fact that, it is more mainly therapy concentrated as well as, I mean, more than 50% of the revenue is coming from just top 3 brands. I mean, any rationale for the same you can just share with us. Also, I mean, what is the EBITDA margin of this business, if you can share that.
We think it's more appropriate to look at the multiples on the current year basis rather than the trailing year basis, particularly because this is an asset which is still in a build-out phase. We see a reasonable growth potential that's yet to be seen in terms of top line. Given that, the top line base is still relatively smaller compared to our existing base, the operating leverage should start playing out in terms of margins there. I think both factors here, the top line growth, which would be higher than the industry growth, plus possibly our base business growth and the additional levers for margin expansion as we go along. That's why we felt this is a justified opportunity.
As I mentioned earlier in the earlier brief that there are opportunities that we can further leverage as part of the Torrent integration that can further drive some of these synergies. Sudhir, you wanna add anything else?
Yeah, Shyam, I think as far as the EBITDA numbers and margins are concerned, I can share with you something which has been there in the public domain, right? I mean, for example, I think FY 2022 numbers which were there in the public domain was that top line of INR 224 crore with EBITDA of little over INR 60 crore. That's the kind of margin which it has made in FY 2022.
With the growth being significantly higher than FY 2022 this year, as we spoke that, YTD basis, the business has been growing at 25%, and we should expect this momentum to continue for the full year. The operating leverage is playing out in a much better way, right? I mean, I'm just giving you some guidance on the margins, right? That you can consider for the purpose of the valuation based on EBITDA multiple, right? All that we can convey here is that, I mean, there's a good amount of headroom as far as margin expansion is concerned. What we believe is that in the near term, the margin should be reaching the margins which we have for our base India business.
That's something which will play out going forward. In terms of the overall, I think EBITDA margins, what I can indicate to you is that at least from an overall company perspective, it's little higher than the overall company EBITDA margin. From that perspective, it's not going to be dilutive from a company perspective. I think on a positive note, as we go forward with the revenue and cost synergies playing out, you'll see improvement in margins coming similar to what we had done with Elder and Unichem in the past.
Okay. Okay, that's really helpful. Secondly, I mean, if you can just share some idea, I mean, as to how should we look at the interest and amortization, because of this acquisition. I mean, at what rate the funds will be raised and overall, you know, how much will be the intangible asset and accordingly the amortization?
No, absolutely. I think we've been following a policy of 15 years amortization. That's something which we would follow for this asset as well. As far as the interest cost is concerned, the closing is going to happen in next one month time, right? It's basically the consideration would be a mix of internal accruals and debt. As far as the interest cost is concerned, I think we can look at a range between 7%-7.5%, maybe. Anywhere between that is what I can indicate.
Okay. Sure, sure. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prakash Agarwal from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Good evening. Just one clarification on this AIOCD data. I mean, when we look at the full year, it shows about INR 178 crore. You are quoting INR 224. Is there an OTC angle which is already there or is AIOCD not reporting correctly? How should we think about it? Yeah, Prakash. The Curatio hasn't subscribed to either AIOCD or IMS. The reflection is not correct. That's one of the factors. Additionally, the way AIOCD uses the stock is sample data. It's spread evenly across the country. Whereas as I mentioned, this is a skewed contribution in Curatio. Because of that, the reflection is just not correct. If you look at IMS, it's slightly closer to the reality, but still that would require some correction.
We don't subscribe to the IMS data set, so we don't have the exact breakup. I think it's somewhere around INR 250 crores in IMS versus the INR 170 that we mentioned in AIOCD. The INR 224 crore. Sorry, in addition to that, there's also a significant component of the OTC sales that is coming. This is through the non-pharma channels through the online sales mainly, which would, I think, have about somewhere between 15%-20% of the business is coming from that channel, which doesn't get captured either in AIOCD or IMS at all.
In that way it is fine, right? INR 180 should be the RX and about INR 40 crores should be the OTC. Is that right?
Roughly about that, but we will be working with both the data set providers post-integration on correcting this. We can share the full data set possibly by end of next quarter.
Okay. Your endeavor would be to have both RX channel as well as OTC channel and infuse some baby care pediatric products also alongside, since you have doctor coverage now? Or what is the thought process?
Initial plan will be to focus on RX mainly. Right now, the promotion spends are all towards the RX business. There's very little spend on OTC going right now, but still there is a sizable contribution of OTC because this is more chronic in nature and the stickiness of the product is quite high. Possibly by next year, beginning of next financial year, we would be looking at increasing the OTC spend share. The idea is to have most of the growth coming from RX and incrementally from OTC, at least in the near term. Long term, we can see how the brands are playing out. This certainly does have a very high OTC potential, almost all of the brands.
Okay. The second part was on the baby care products. Do you plan to introduce those also, like baby derms, et cetera?
Baby care products mean, for which one?
Since you now have pediatric exposure in terms of doctor coverage. Would you launch more products with these divisions or what are you working with the existing products?
Yeah, that would be part of the plan. Either from the existing base business to the Curatio division or vice versa, that will be part of the plan. The acquired portfolio is mainly in the pediatric care anyway, so may not be very high number of products that can be launched immediately in the new products that we launch. Certainly it provides a kind of cross-pipeline potential with our existing cosmetic dermatology and this pediatric dermatology.
How would you rate the pricing of these products? Is there any enough pricing levers or the synergy is mostly cost levers?
Pricing of the main product, for example, Tedibar, is much lower than most of the competition. Though Tedibar has the highest market share in RX, the pricing is significantly lower. Right now it's about INR 165 per unit. Whereas there's many other products which are at INR 250, somewhere between INR 200-INR 250. Not exactly sure on, you know, how we can look at pricing at this point, but there is significant headroom for increases in the future as well.
Both price and cost levers are there, yes.
That's right. That's right.
Okay. Lastly, I guess one more clarification on the margin side. What I heard, correct me if I'm wrong, fiscal 2022 was around 26%-27%. What you aspire to be in the first few quarters or maybe in the, this financial year would be the company level margins and, going forward inch towards India level margins of your business.
Yeah, I would say so, Prakash. That's the way to think.
Okay, lovely. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saion Mukherjee from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Sudhir, my first question is, you mentioned that this deal will be funded through a mix of debt plus internal accruals. So, can you roughly indicate like how much of that will be debt funding? What will be the payback period for this deal in your view?
Saion Mukherjee. I think out of the total consideration, maybe 80%-85% should be debt, and probably the remaining should be from the internal accruals. That's a ballpark figure which I'm talking today. As we progress over the next one month, it'll be more clearer, right? I mean, there will be some additional accruals which may come in.
Mm-hmm.
Probably the debt funding should be between INR 75-85, is what I believe at this point in time. I think payback in a sense, I believe you're talking about the debt position or the business payback you ask?
The business payback. The consideration which you are taking for this deal.
Yeah. Saion, the way I see is, FY 2022, my debt position, the net debt position was roughly INR 3,400. FY 2023 and 2024 put together, there is a repayment schedule of around INR 2,000, so let's say around INR 1,400 by end of FY 2024 for the existing debt. Add to that the new debt which will come in this year, approximately, let's say INR 1,700. By end of FY 2024, we are talking about a net debt of INR 3,100. FY 2025, I should be able to pay substantial part of the debt, possibly around INR 2,000 from FY 2023 cash flows.
Basically FY25, end of FY25, my net debt should be roughly around INR 1,000 crore-INR 1,100 crore, which should be basically 0.4x on a net debt to EBITDA basis.
Broadly by 2025 or fiscal year 2025 or 2026, you see, most of synergies realized, and then this team nearing.
Yeah, absolutely. Because I think FY 2023, 2024, my existing debt, most of it is getting paid off. FY 2025, the cash flows which would get generated, a substantial portion can be used for prepay of the debt which I am taking today.
Okay. That's helpful. My second question is, like you have got the entire, infra of Curatio, with this acquisition. Do you foresee any kind of investment which you need to do for this business to achieve, the numbers or, the margin, trends which you mentioned some time back?
No, I think already there is a reasonable percentage of spend that's going in the business, so it would not change that much. In fact, when you look at the overall combined entity, it could be slightly lower than our overall company average as well. The spends are quite adequate, and in the near term, we don't see a significant increase or even a slight increase from these levels.
Okay. That's helpful. Just a last clarity on the margins. FY 2022 margins were somewhere around 26%-27%. In near term itself, you are hoping to inch it towards the corporate average, or it will take some time for you to say reach 30%+ margin for this portfolio? Like what is the general timeframe which we should
No, t he overall company margins today, for example, quarter one was 29.2%. Curatio will not be lower than 29.2% for this year because there's an operating leverage which is already playing out because of the higher growth which is seen in the current year. As we move forward with the integration, you'll see the margins getting better and better with the potential to reach the similar margin as we have for the Beiersdorf business.
Okay. Thank you. That's helpful.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Just would like to understand on Tedibar side, in case of atopic dermatitis, in terms of the range of treatment, where does it stand in terms of pecking order if I have to put it like Sudocrem, Eucerin, etcetera?
Sorry, I couldn't get the question. Could you repeat that, please?
In the pecking order for the treatment of atopic dermatitis, Tedibar, as a generic product, let's say, where does it stand in terms of, you know, treatment?
This is a bathing bar. This is not, you know, medical treatment per se. This is something that is advised by pediatricians as a kind of ongoing skincare routine rather than any kind of spot treatment. Obviously the end result is that it significantly improves the condition of atopic dermatitis. This would be prescribed along with a few other brands, I guess, as well. The whole basket has to be seen together, Tedibar, Atogla and the other brands together.
Got you. What would be the reach of this company in terms of number of doctors it has been kind of servicing till date? Or prescription wise.
Dermatologists is about 6,000-7,000, and pediatricians is about 16,000 out of the total coverage universe of maybe 25,000 odd.
Yeah, pediatricians 16,000. That's what you mean, is it?
That's right.
Pediatricians 16,000 only, right?
16,000, yes.
Any rationalization of MRPs as a part of synergy?
No, we haven't planned anything as of right now. We would want to see how the business is progressing. From a PCPM perspective, I think the growth itself allows us to reach a reasonably high PCPM over the next one or two years. Currently our base business obviously is at a very high PCPM, but this does have the potential of reaching maybe, you know, INR 7-8 lakh PCPM over the 3-4-year period.
Sure. Thanks for that, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abdulkader Puranwala from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question on the supply agreement for three years. This is through the erstwhile promoter of Curatio, or there is a third-party manufacturing involved in this case?
These are all B2B arrangements which we have, so we just as part of the approving process ensure that these contracts are extended minimum for three years now.
Got it. Just one more on the growth of these particular brands. If I refer to the presentation what you've shared, much of the brands are, you know, in the high growth market. Somewhere down the line, you know, three-year CAGR, I mean, barring the impact of COVID, so this have still, you know, lagged the market growth. I mean, it's been, you know, a lag there. Any primary reason you'd like to highlight what had earlier went wrong and, you know, why the growth in these brands were not in you know, in comparison with the market?
I'm not sure which data set you're referring to, but the CAGR also of the portfolio has been very strong. It's been, I think, at least a 14% CAGR plus, over a five-year period minimum, I believe. It's accelerating further as the new products that they had launched, last year, two years ago get added into the base. The growth of the portfolio has been far above the market, for the last couple of years.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Agarwal from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Actually, just following the last question. In your presentation you have given the Tedibar and most of your brands for the two years CAGR of around 10%-11%. Is that substantially disrupt the growth of your major products during the COVID? What would be the long-term growth for the top brands of the company?
I think that growth you'll be referring to the market growth, if I'm not wrong, not the brand growth. The market growth being 10%-11% itself is quite high. This would be part of the overall cosmetic dermatology segment, which is about INR 3,600 crores. I believe CAGR is somewhere close to 15%-16% over a longer period. Within that these are even in a faster growing segment. Tedibar has the highest market share in this pediatric cleanser. Does Cetaphil have the highest market share. The growth of the entire covered market is significantly higher than the IPM growth.
Got it. Thanks. What is the fixed assets in this acquisition? How much is that?
Sorry, what is the question?
What is the fixed assets?
Fixed assets. Nothing much, nothing major. These are all intangibles, which are coming in.
Got it. Thanks a lot. That's it. Yeah, I'm done.
Nitin, is the question answered?
Yeah, I'm done. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neha Manpuria from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. We just wanted to understand the cost synergies part that you mentioned. B ased on whatever you've mentioned, it seems like a lot of the margin improvement will actually be driven by you know, increasing penetration of the brands that are there in this portfolio. What are we changing on the, you know? Is it purely operating leverage that will improve the margins? You know, would you need any further investment to be able to increase penetration of these brands, particularly since you talked about you know, increasing regional distribution, et cetera?
Neha, in terms of cost synergies, what we are looking at is, from a procurement perspective, so basically the COGS, there should be some improvement, which will start flowing in, because I think between Piramal and Torrent has a better reach and negotiating power. The other one is of course the productivity improvement, which is going to pan out over the next few years. The third is certain fixed expenses, where our cost structure is more efficient compared to Piramal. Once these businesses merge and come to the same platform, there will be cost synergies flowing in. In terms of investment, I think Aman has already spoken, right.
I mean, on immediate basis, at least for the next one or two years, we are not looking at any incremental investment. It's basically driving the white spaces which are there for increasing the reach and getting a better revenue base.
Understood. Thank you so much, Sudhir.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Randeria from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Good evening, and thanks for providing this opportunity. I just want to understand the potential for line extension in, let's say, Tedibar. If what you have is Tedibar soap, and it competes with, let's say, Dettol or Cetaphil. Now, I see Cetaphil has several products, moisturizing lotions and, you know, some, a lot of babies, you know, creams and stuff like that. Do you already have that in the portfolio or is there some potential on it going forward?
That will be part of the future plans. Right now it's only focused on a very specific indication for Tedibar, whereas the other brands that you mentioned are very widely spread across many different indications. There is potential certainly for adding new indications and extensions, and lifecycle management also would be part of lifecycle management. Additionally, there would be at the right time the OTC lever as well, which can be further brought in. Definitely part of the plan going ahead.
It'd be fair to sort of assume that in the next two or three years you'll, you know, slowly launch a lot of these line extensions.
Over a 2-3-year period, yes.
Okay. Just to, you know, just push you a bit more on the price. T he Tedibar price is around INR 165, other products are between INR 175-INR 210. How do you see this kind of pricing, is it like a pharma kind of a pricing, where you take 7%, 8%, 10% price hike every year? Or you can take maybe something higher, maybe, you know, at one go and maybe, you know, keep it at par with others.
Historically, this brand has taken not more than 3%-4% increase on an annual basis, and that also every alternate year. This year was an exception, I think because there were inflationary pressures, so that one-time high increase of 10% was taken, which will now start playing out in the inventory once the new stocks come in the market. Generally, I would say 5% kind of price increase is something that can be sustainable.
Perfect, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Agarwal from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. These products, most of these are in the drug license or in the cosmetic license?
Almost the entire portfolio is non-drug license. It's either cosmetic or food license.
There is, for the next one or two, a restriction on the ability to price hike.
Yeah, there would be no cap on price hikes. That's right.
Now, secondly on, you know, so you mentioned about they have a 16,000 pediatric coverage right now with 25,000 universe, as well as 6-7,000 dermatologist coverage. I mean, from a revenue growth lever perspective, what is our primary lever here? Is our ability to increase coverage of pediatrics and the dermatologists, or what else is, you know, the primary revenue growth leverage for us?
Yeah. As a national revenue contribution for the entire segment and for the brand as well, north and east is significantly lower compared to the national average. That's something that we would intend to cover more intensely and more deeply. Additionally, there is enough organic levers in the existing coverage where increasing prevalence of the atopic dermatitis cases particularly in the south and west, which are just getting diagnosed. That number seems to be increasing quite a lot as well. The sheer population growth for that additional room for the existing coverage to add more unit growth. Both would start playing out over the next couple of years.
This portfolio, as you see it, what can deliver a significantly above market growth for a reasonably long period of time?
We would think so because that's the general trend that we are seeing in the cosmetic space. The cosmetic dermatology space has seen a consistently higher growth than the IPM barring a few years. I think that trend is something that is what in fact is one of the main attractive factor of this deal because it's a space which is growing steadily as disposable incomes increase. Cosmetics overall, skincare overall is seeing a large increase in usage intensity and usage, the sheer number of patients or consumers on it. Those are the real long-term macro factors that we feel are going to be favorable.
For us to transition some part of this portfolio to an OTC route, you know, are there any regulations that prevent us, or it's gonna be just our, you know, our tactical view on the opportunity at a point in time?
No regulatory. There's nothing that could be a barrier. In fact, they've already started. Curatio already started OTC promotions in a I would say a small way last one and a half years. It's already shown and this is mainly through digital promotions. They've already seen pretty good response. The platform is already in place. Now it's about really putting that platform to a much bigger use. I think at the right time, because OTC spends can tend to be quite higher than the usual prescription business. We want to calibrate all of that once we have the integration in place, the RX platform in place, the field force in place. That's when we'll start looking at this opportunity.
Secondly, on our INR 120-odd crore portfolio, if I heard it right, that we have on dermatology right now, I mean, does this acquisition really provide a lot of strength to sort of pushing that portfolio also?
Yeah, it would. Because Curatio has a pretty strong equity in dermatologists and pediatricians, so there would be that opportunity for cross-selling. We have now experience of both Elder and Unichem and now that has been playing out. It wouldn't be the main kind of growth driver, but it would definitely add incrementally to growth.
Thirdly, Sudhir Menon, you know, so when you look at the accounting policies you're gonna follow in terms of, as you said, bulk of the proceeds, the consideration that we're paying is gonna be in form of intangibles, which you're looking to write off over 15 years, and with the interest costs which is there on this transaction. B y when do you foresee this transaction become EPS accretive from a pure accounting perspective?
Nitin Agarwal, what I would suggest is, we're just waiting for the merger to happen, which would take maybe 4-6 months for actually the synergies to play out in a very nice way. Possibly, quarter four, end of quarter four, we'll start talking about it, Nitin Agarwal.
Okay, sure. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shashank Kothari from Bird Advisory. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, this is Shashank. I just couple of questions. What happens to the earlier management of Curatio?
almost the entire team will continue, except the few key senior management who have opted out.
Understand. Okay. On the pricing bit, it was very surprising to me. I thought that usually the brand with the largest market share also commands the best pricing in that segment. That's not true for Tedibar. Can you just explain why that is the case?
I think this was really the concept creator, the brand Tedibar. Affordability was probably at the core of the concept as well. B ack in, I think, 2010 or 2011 when the brand was launched, it was a new concept altogether. Probably because of that, it was kept in mind at that point of time and, probably keeping that value of the brand as affordable and effective treatment that was continued. The players who have come in later on probably wanted to price a bit higher than that. That's, I mean, that's my insight into why I think that's the case right now.
I see. Okay. Understand. You believe this pricing gap can be reduced over a period of time?
It can be, but that's not necessarily, you know, part of the plan right now. I mean, yeah, the second and third brands are priced significantly higher. They're also seeing decent growth. Yes, there is that headroom to increase the price a little.
Understood. You said that a lot of sales are concentrated in south and west. Is that because this thing is also more prevalent in south and west, or is it just the awareness side?
That's right. The entire SKU of this particular market, cosmetic dermatology, is much higher in south and west, and west particularly in Bombay region as well. That's been historically the case. I t could mean that patients are more aware, doctors are diagnosing it more, but that's just how the segment has been. Because of that, the contribution also has ended up being in that fashion. North and east is also growing. It's been growing faster in the last few years, but it's still far off from where south is in particular and even where west is. There is a potential to grow in those regions as well.
Understood. Okay. Thank you much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Celly from Equirus. Please go ahead. Bharat Celly, your line is unmuted for questions.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you. I want to just understand on the Tedibar. We have competition from something like Sebamed or Denix . We refer that considering RX data, we are among the top 10. When we look at OTX and RX, how will you stand in the market in terms of brand?
There is no clear data set that indicates exactly where each brand is standing in a combined set of OTC and RX. We are looking at this purely from an RX perspective right now and eventually the OTC. From an RX perspective in terms of competition, there is a significant lead in market share of Tedibar compared to others. I would think that if I'm not wrong, the SMSRC data set shows that Tedibar is ranked first in the prescription, followed by the other few three brands which are also active here. Most of the other brands have been following more of an OTC approach and not through this pediatric segment approach. That's where really the strength of this brand lies.
Right. You mentioned that we are actually Curatio covers almost 75% of pediatric doctors. Just wondering, you are saying that we have around 75% coverage and despite that our revenues are more skewed towards south and west. What is the particular reason considering that we are already touching almost 75% of the nationwide doctors?
Historical reasons, I guess would be probably to start in particular pockets and then go across and eventually keep increasing. I think last couple of years they have added quite a lot of field force for all of the brands. I guess the plan would have been for the Curatio team to increase over time rather than add all doctors at the same time, which is what we have been following for our base business as well. We don't cover, you know, 100% of all specialties. You look at a brand from a particular base, see if there's further potential and keep adding incrementally over time. That's how we would see this as well.
From the current coverage to the next level of coverage, we don't intend to immediately add all new doctors. It would be happening gradually over time.
Right. The last one, again looking at something related to expense, can I ask for. We have looked at Sebamed, Cetaphil, and these are like well-established brands that even Himalaya is also something like this leading in the OTC platform. Do you think that the growth can be different because of these brands? Because these brands are very focused. In one of the article, even Sebamed mentioned that they have increased their promotional expenses by almost like three times over the last two years. Could it actually hamper what we are projecting in terms of growth?
I wouldn't say this is competing with any of these brands that you mentioned directly right now because this is purely a prescription-driven demand, particularly more contributing from pediatricians than even dermatologists. Now, to my knowledge, the other brands aren't focusing as much or even present in that particular segment of pediatrics, where the dominant share is coming from Tedibar. In the OTC space, it could be a completely different game, but that's where we believe that Tedibar does have the existing captive user base of young parents and parents who've used this product before. The positioning can be differential enough to give us our own space at the right time.
Competition in the OTC space could be different, and wouldn't really want to comment on how that may play out because that's somewhere further down the line. RX we feel there is a significant dominance in market share, particularly in pediatrics.
Sure. Thank you. I'm done, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that would be our last question for today. On behalf of Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.