Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to the Neuland Laboratories Limited Q1 FY25 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all the participants line 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. Ravi Udeshi from Ernst & Young. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Via. Good evening, friends. We welcome you to the Q1 FY 25 earnings conference call of Neuland Laboratories Limited. To take us through the results and to answer your questions, we have with us the top management from Neuland Laboratories, represented by Mr. Sucheth Davuluri, Vice Chairman and CEO, Mr. Saharsh Davuluri, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Abhijit Majumdar, CFO, and Mr. Sajeev Emmanuel Medikonda, Head of Corporate Planning and Strategy. We will start the call with a brief overview of the financials by Mr. Abhijit Majumdar, and then Saharsh will give you broad highlights of the business trends and what he's seeing in the market. Post this, we will open up the call for the Q&A session. As usual, the standard safe harbor clause applies as we start the call. With that said, I now hand over the floor to Abhijit.
Over to you, Abhijit.
So, thank you very much, Ravi. And good evening, and a warm welcome to each of you, for joining our call. The financials are as follows: for quarter 1 of FY 2025, we had total income of INR 444.4 crores against rupee in quarter 1 versus 365 crores in the same period last year, an increase of 21.7%. This has largely been driven by growth, high growth, in the CMS business. However, I would like to point out that the inherent nature of our business is uneven on a quarter-to-quarter basis, and hence, this quarter is not an indication of the full year performance for FY 2025. Our EBITDA, excluding exceptional items of 2 point...
INR 20.6 crores, excluding that, it lands at INR 128.6 crores with a margin of 28.9%, an increase of 174 basis points over Q1 FY 2024. We continue to focus on productivity, which is leading to a financial resilience of our company. Now, coming to the specifics, our gross margin for the quarter was 56.1%, as compared to 55.2% in Q1 FY 2024, and 58.8% in Q4 FY 2024. This gross margin, as always, includes direct costs pertaining to the to manufacturing and as attributable to the product. The profit after tax was INR 98.3 crores, as compared to 62.2 crores in Q1 FY 2024.
This includes an exceptional item of 20.6 crores arising from the, you can say, a sale of surplus our investment property. The quarter EPS stands at 76.6 rupees per share. At the same time, we continue to focus on cash to optimize our working capital, which stands at 107 days to change, and thereby we have generated a free cash flow in quarter one, FY 2025, of 50.9 crores. We also repaid some part of our debt of around 3.7 crores. Consequently, our net debt position, which is negative, stands at 110.2 crores. While we continue to invest in upgrading our facilities, we have invested 59.1 crores in capital spends during Q1 FY 2025.
We continue to be mindful of balancing growth with profitability by continuously working on optimizing costs and processes, which will make us sustainable over a long time. Now, FY 25 is anticipated, as we have mentioned earlier, to be a year of consolidation, influenced by the specific dynamics of our company and the life cycle of our products in GDS and CMS, CMS portfolios. The future investments that we will make will enable us as we proceed to meet our mid-range plan. And we will make these investments as and when we finalize the suitable opportunities on a risk-return matrix. FY 25, as we have stated earlier, will be a year of normalized revenues, as we will be in an investment phase. And we expect our businesses to once again gain momentum from FY 26, based on our current visibility of our portfolio products.
Overall, we continue to be cautiously optimistic of the future potential that our business holds. With that, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Saharsh for his remarks. Once again, thank you very much.
Thank you, Abhijit. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the call.
...The performance that we witnessed over the last seven quarters reflects the transition of our business model from being comprised predominantly of Prime APIs to a healthy combination of CMS and GDS APIs. This transition has been driven by the commercialization over the last two years of certain molecules, and also the ongoing improvements in R&D project management operations and business development initiatives. This progress is in line with our long-term strategy and is illustrative of the kind of business and the company we want to build. Over many years, we've been consistently positioning Neuland as a pure-play API service provider with broad, complex capabilities, partnering with both innovators as well as generic pharmaceutical companies. I'm very pleased with the performance of Q1 FY 25, both in terms of revenue and profit. This was driven by commercial molecules in the CMS segment.
But before elaborating more on this quarter, I'd like to re-emphasize a few comments, I think some of which Abhijit has already made. One, the CMS business is lumpy in nature, and therefore, an annual progression is a better indicator than a quarterly progression. Number two, as previously stated, we expect FY 25 to be a year of moderate growth and normalized margins, and that outlook remains unchanged. Completion of additional manufacturing facilities in this year, coupled with anticipated commercial launch of more molecules, some on the CMS side, give us the confidence of achieving higher growth in FY 26 and beyond. We continue to see increasing interest in customers looking at Neuland as their CDMO partner.
In terms of the macro picture, we are yet to see significant impact of the BIOSECURE Act by way of active RFPs or orders, but we believe that the environment is very favorable for us in the medium to long term. In terms of our biotech clients, being acquired by Big Pharma, we've seen a continuity of customer engagement and are actually quite excited about future, opportunities and possibilities. Our business development team continues to identify the right, opportunities in line with our long-term strategy. The CMS revenues of INR 235 crore were driven by molecules in the commercial segment. The associated drugs seem to be doing well in their end markets, and we expect to continue serving the customer as well.
On the GDS front, we continue to focus on developing new specialty products while continuing to optimize processes and increase market share for key commercial APIs. Some specialty APIs which have done well for us this quarter include dorzolamide and donepezil. Prime products that have done well for us are mirtazapine, valacyclovir, and escitalopram. Please note that we have transitioned escitalopram to the Prime segment this quarter, which means that there is a marginal impact on the salience of the specialty segment, because escitalopram was being counted as a specialty product, but now going forward, it will be counted as a Prime product. We expect that the segment should perform in line with stated expectations over the short to medium term.
As always, I would like to point out the inherently uneven nature of the business, which makes it hard for us to share precise numbers or guidance, especially for the short term. However, looking at the order flow, we continue to be confident of the medium and long-term prospects of the business. Another reminder from our previous interactions: we continue to maintain that there are a variety of factors that could influence our projections. These include performance of individual products, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, volatility of raw material costs, and other dynamic business elements. We are aware of these challenges and continue to remain watchful of these moving factors. In terms of future capacity building, we are on track to complete new production blocks in Unit 3 by FY 2025 end, and we expect to start commercial production by H2 of FY 2026.
Neuland's flexibility and nimbleness are crucial for an effective response to the shifting business landscape. I would also like to highlight that our growing business reputation and favorable macroeconomic conditions are attracting exciting opportunities. We are dedicated to enhancing our customer experience, which we believe makes us a differentiated API provider. Our investments in expanding our capacity and capabilities are also to be seen as a testament to our commitment to the future. By adhering to our core principles, which is customer focus, agility, and operational excellence, Neuland is strategically positioned to harness opportunities and overcome short-term challenges. We remain steadfast on our journey to realize our long-term goals. So maybe having said that, Ravi, I request you to open it up for Q&A.
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 the 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 the question. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, you may limit your questions to two per participant. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Sajal Kapur, who is a retail investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. A quick question. Slide 10, CDMO project dashboard. Phase two pipeline has improved significantly YOY. Is this organic or inorganic? What I mean by inorganic is molecule hitting our space from outside via tech transfer, instead of organic progression from phase one to phase two. Thank you.
So, Sajeev, I think there's a combination of both which is happening when it comes to the number of molecules which are there in phase two. We have had additions in terms of molecules, which BD team has gotten from customers. At the same time, we have worked with molecules in pre-clinical and they have also progressed to phase two, which is the reason why you find the collective number up there. So it's a mix, but I think if I were to put the number there, I would say that it is almost 60/40. Means 60% in terms of progression and 40% in terms of the new businesses that we have brought in.
Right. Okay, understood. Thank you. And then, second question is: in a scenario where dollar starts reacting down to a higher than normal inflation in the U.S. and the ballooning U.S. national debt, there will no doubt be a material impact on our business because we are predominantly a U.S. dollar-denominated exports. So how do you guys read into this USD-linked fragility, which may or may not play out in near-term? It's anybody's guess, but in a scenario, if it happens, I mean, what sort of strategy, mitigation, et cetera, you have put in place? Thank you.
So Sajeev, at this point, we've discussed this obviously between ourselves and also at the board level, and we made a conscious decision that we will leave our hedging position open for now. Having said that, it's hard for us or anyone to predict where exactly the dollar is gonna go in the future. So, our view at this point is that we look for movement. I think given the Fed rates came back as uncut for now, maybe it will be a rate cut in September. At least that's the indication. But we'll wait and see how the market plays out, and we'll take a suitable call at this time. But it's, for us, it's hard at this time to predict whether it's gonna weaken or strengthen.
Understood. Understood. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karan Vora from GS. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. So, firstly, on the U.S. BIOSecure Act, just wanted some more clarity in terms of some of our peers have started mentioning that they are getting pilot projects or higher RFQs. So, like, are we doing anything specific to kind of gain the attention of some of these Western innovators? Or, or what is it that is stopping us from getting more RFQs? So that's my first question.
Yes. So, I think the BIOSECURE Act that's being discussed, I think there's a lot of, you know, anxiety among the U.S. pharma biotech segment, no doubt, and a lot of companies have started exploratory work involving India. And as I had mentioned in my comments, we don't see any tangible RFPs or business inflow yet. But having said that, there's obviously a heightened level of customer visits, you know, RF, you know, RFIs, you know, meeting requests, things like that, which could be considered as lead indicators of the behavior of pharma biotech, U.S. pharma, U.S. biotech. But it would also be premature on our part to deduce that it will lead to, you know, a specific increase in new business. I think that's something that remains to be seen.
I'm sure other companies are also observing the same thing. I think it's very evident in whatever conversations even I've had with U.S. customers, that they are looking at an alternative to China, whether or not the BIOSECURE Act gets implemented in its current draft or not. So there is business to come. It just remains to be seen how much and when, and that's where I think, you know, we also wanted to just caution that, you know, don't expect any dramatic increase in new business, at least from our perspective. The other perhaps insight I can give you is that we are also... Please understand that we are a pure play API company. We don't offer a lot of other services to these companies.
So, so obviously for us, given the focus area that we are in, our observations may be very different from what may be a clinical or a biological-focused CDMO or maybe medchem-focused CDMOs may see. So maybe you should take that also into consideration.
Got it. Got it. That's, that's helpful. Also, is it the case that the Biosecure impact is being felt more from a large pharma point of view right now than than some of the biotechs? And is that the reason why some of the other guys are seeing more inflows, or it's still, it's broad-based, you think?
I think it's a good question, and that's what I would expect. I think Big Pharma, given their resources, has started to move, you know, I think much faster. They obviously have teams to deploy and partnerships in different countries, so perhaps they are moving faster. I think biotech companies are kind of waiting and watching. Also, you know, we know that biotech companies have more finite resources when it comes to qualifying, you know, redundancy, like second supplier, third suppliers. Big Pharma tends to do that more than biotech. So it could be, but I guess both of us are speculating at this point.
Got it. Got it. My second question is on, with respect to CapEx. So, I understand that, we are adding, more capacity in Unit 3, which I think you mentioned will be operational by end of FY 2026, if I'm not mistaken. So, like, since our Unit 1 and 2 are already being utilized at optimum utilization capacity, and we are, like, we expect the revenues to inflect from FY 2026 onwards, so why are we not, trying to put a larger capacity or start putting a larger capacity right now, so that when 2 years down the line, the Unit 3 gets fully utilized, we already have a capacity in place? So anything, anything on that?
Also, the current small addition which we are doing in Unit 1, is that for the CMS business? Is that for a commercialized molecule? What is it? Maybe some color on that. Thank you.
Yeah, sure. I think, you kind of loaded up multiple questions, so I'll try to answer them. The Unit 3 capacity creation will be ready by end of FY 25 and will be commercialized in the second half of FY 26. That's the comment we had made. The capacities of Unit 2 and Unit 1 are more limited given that there is limited space over there. However, in Unit 1, as we had previously disclosed, we had acquired a 5-acre piece of land adjacent to Unit 1, which will serve as a extension to Unit 1 and therefore make Unit 1 a larger facility.
There is some CapEx that was approved, today, which will be deployed for, expanding capacity in Unit 1, which is largely for GDS products, just because we have increase in volumes for some of the GDS products. We anticipate increase in the next two, three years, and we want to service that, demand, and therefore this, CapEx is being deployed for that reason. With regards to your, last question with regards to foreseen capacity and, creating capacity ahead of time, I think we definitely would like to do that, and we continue looking at ways to do that. But also we are... We believe, you know, I think being a very specialized API company, we, we are very cautious in what kind of capacity we are going to create and how much capital we will deploy just purely for capacity creation.
Because we also want to make sure that, capacity is being created in anticipation of some specific demand, rather than create a very large facility and then look for customers. I think that is not an approach that we believe works for the kind of APIs we are pursuing in CMS as well as GDS. So yes, I think we are thinking, well into the future. So we are thinking about capacity requirements for, three years, five years into the future. And as we make progress on those areas, we will continue to, update everyone. Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks a lot, Saharsh. That's really helpful.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vivek Rakholiya from Ficom Family Office. Please go ahead.
Vivek, can you hear me okay?
Yes, Vivek, you are.
Thank you. I would like to know the size of opportunity for the following specialty APIs: paliperidone, entacapone, dorzolamide, and apixaban. I would also like to understand the competitive landscape of these specialty APIs. Thank you.
So I think, these are all molecules which take the calls for now. Yeah. So these are all molecules which I kind of... Each of them has a different, potential. Some of them have been generic for a while, some of them are yet to become, generic. I think, so for paliperidone and apixaban, we see that there is going to be, even as I have contributed in the past, there will be molecules which will be going generic in different markets at different points of time, and will have a significant potential to add to our growth in the future. When it comes to, say, dorzolamide and entacapone, they're slightly older specialty molecules, entacapone for Parkinson's and dorzolamide in the ophthalmic area.
So I think, we would see less growth, but we continue to add customers even in some of the older molecules, too.
Is there anything else? Sorry, we missed the last part of your question. What would be the competitive landscape in these molecules as well?
More often than not, the competition will say other Indian API companies and European API companies. In some of the, like, for example, a molecule like paliperidone, the competition is-
... limited, but in the other molecules, that is, even in the case of entacapone, the competition space is limited because, in fact, let's say, complex API. Whereas the other molecules, there is significant from Indian and European players.
Thanks a lot. Thank you. That helps.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Shyam Garg from Ladderup Finance Limited. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. My first question is, is with respect to the capital utilization during the Q1, and what is the expected capital utilization and ROA of Unit 3, in FY 2026?
So currently, the capacity utilization in Unit 2 and Unit 3 is close to 90%+. As far as Unit 3 is concerned, it is this year it will be around 30-40%. But I'm just preempting your question, so we expect you know CMS molecules to flow into Unit 3 at different stages. Some of it, as Saharsh has mentioned in the FY 2026, but some of it will flow in FY 2027. So that we have the capacity to meet currently that demand.
And we're also increasing the capacity in Unit 1.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. And sir, we have seen a decline in manufacturing expense in Q1 FY 25, so that is. Can you please explain why it is so?
Declining manufacturing expenses, he's asking about.
The declining manufacturing expenses was predominantly because, let me give this number to you. But, one of the reasons is our capacity utilization in Unit 3 was 50+ last year, and that has kind of dropped, is expected to drop in FY 2025.
Okay, sir. And sir, what is the ROA of the new capacity expansion that you are going to do?
We've not disclosed any ROA on the new,
Mm-hmm.
investments. I think the way we look at it is, the product mix in Q1 is quite diverse, and therefore, what may have been, you know, the asset turns or the ROA in the past may not be a indicative reflection of what we expect in the future. So I think that's kind of an evolving metric, and we really haven't given any kind of outlook or, indication for that.
Okay, sir. Thanks for answering my question.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Akul Broachwala from Avendus Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So first is on Prime API. Can you just provide a like-to-like growth number for this quarter? Just to understand the impact of azithromycin inclusion in the segment.
I think in terms of where we are in terms of time, I think Escitalopram, this quarter, has contributed probably close to around less than 10% of the Prime revenue, just to give you an idea. Beyond that, I don't want to talk about specific products.
Okay, understood. And, secondly, you know, in terms of, our CMS business, the kind of performance that we've seen this quarter, do you expect... I mean, is there, first of all, some kind of lumpiness due to logistical issues or any sort of, you know, campaign-related timings because of which we've reported this number?
I think the lumpiness, as I said in the comments, is an inherent part of the nature, so I don't think you should attribute it to any logistics or any other reasons. I think it's better to take it on face value.
Okay. And, lastly, you know, in terms of your comment about normalizing revenue growth, so does that mean that it's going to be lower versus what we've delivered in last two years? Or, you know, maybe it's like an average of couple of years putting together. Just wanted to understand, you know, a bit on your guidance for the full year.
Yeah, I think the normalization means. I believe the last two years were above normal, so I leave the deduction to you.
Okay. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Pranjal Mukhija from GrowthSphere Ventures LLP. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Hi. First of all, I want to congratulate you on the quarter's numbers. You guys have been delivering on, again, really right.
Sir, your voice is breaking. Hello, is this better?
Yeah. Yeah.
So I just wanted to congratulate the team on the journey that you all have been on, and clearly, a lot of that is now visible in the numbers you guys. So sir, I had a couple of questions. The first question was, so in our annual report, we're talking about growing interest from customers with larger pipelines. And I think the team also alluded to the same in the con call. So could you shed some color on what kind of customers are we talking about, and maybe share some details or some qualitative details about them? Hello?
Yeah. Sorry, I was just getting clarification on the question. So, in terms of our customers having larger pipelines, I think, the way we have built the specialty business as well as the CMS business, is that we typically start, you know, working on one molecule. And, I guess what we were referring to in the annual report is that we're seeing customers now who have commercialized or, you know, advanced their, drugs with us, are coming back to us with additional molecules. And the project pipeline that we have seen increase, is also not necessarily coming from unique new customers. It's also the same customers giving us more molecules. So that's the one indication that we had talked about.
I guess the other part of it is that, as you know, M&A is happening in the biotech space, there is also an expectation, and this is still very early at the moment, there is also an expectation that, as our customers get acquired by larger companies, the expectation is not only to retain the current business, but to also expand and broaden and, and perhaps, you know, work with other molecules of these customers. So I think that's the indication, and basically, a very high level of focus in this space is what was essential for us to be able to do that. And that's the perspective from which the comment was made in the annual report.
All right. So, so this interest is from big pharma companies or with the biotechs that we usually deal with?
I think it's both, but you all know that Neuland has predominantly built its business through biotech companies. So we are not necessarily seen as a household name for big pharma. But I think as these biotechs are getting acquired by big pharma, we're starting to see big pharma also build familiarity with Neuland. So yeah, so I think it's really more with biotechs, but also the expectation is two, three years from now, we expect big pharma to have a similar level of comfort with Neuland as well.
Got it. My next question was, regarding some details on the new launches-
Sorry to interrupt you. In order to ensure that the management is able to address all the questions, there are other participants in the queue. Can you return to the queue for the follow-up?
Sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Bhardwaj, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the numbers. So as I understand, last 5, 10 years, journey for Neuland has been moving, you know, more towards complex APIs and ensuring that the name and brand comes as a trustworthy partner. Could you paint a picture for us on what you envision and bigger journey in the next 5 more years? And what kind of risks do you anticipate, and how are you planning for that journey? And the second question would be more on the lines of, is there or has, just the board discussed anything on the lines of, you know, part... ensuring, you know, participation, from the wider community groups of investors? So-
It's really difficult to understand what you're saying, Rahul. I think the first part we were able to deduce, you wanted to talk about, having gone through this journey in the last 10 years with complex molecules, what do we plan to do going forward? That seemed to be the first question. Second question, we weren't able to understand at all. Could you just speak a little loudly?
Yes, sure. Sorry about that. So the second question was more on the lines of, you know, if the board has had any discussions in terms of a potential stock split, just in one perspective, that it may, you know, it, it may enable a wider participation from the, you know,
No, I'm, I'm really sorry, Rahul. The second question, we, none of us are able to understand what you're saying.
So, any discussions with regards to stock split by the board?
Stock split. Okay, got it. Got it. Okay. I think, with regards to the future, I think as we've mentioned earlier, I think this model that we have built so far, the pure play API model, I think it has started to give us results, and we are still very excited about what remains for us in the future. Yeah. And I think, you know, we want to really capitalize on this. We want to enable this business to grow both on the GDS and the CMS side. And we feel that it has a long runway, right? I think even in the annual report, we had mentioned that the API market is, you know, over $120 billion. And, I think we still are in the early stages of that. So we want to capitalize on that.
Of course, we will try to, you know, diversify capabilities within the API space, you know, maybe expand on certain technologies that we've already built. But the idea is to kind of keep growing on this model and enable, you know, drug development and manufacturing. I think with regards to the stock split, the second question, I think that's something that we will definitely take into consideration. I think we've been getting this input, but we haven't really processed it.... Yeah, we will discuss it at a board level and also talk to other advisors and then probably figure out what's the best way forward.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next person is from the line of Avanish, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Hello, yes, Avanish, your line is unmuted.
Yeah. Good evening. Congratulations on the great set of numbers. I have one question. What kind of risk do we see in the near to medium term on the business?
Most of the risks. This is Rahul.
Avanish.
Avanish?
Uh, yes.
Avanish, yeah, I mean, we've talked about some of the risks in the previous calls as well, but currently there are about two or three risks that we are actively managing. One is this whole alternate sourcing, bringing our supply chain closer to home, having an alternate supply to our Chinese partners. That's one thing which is an active strategy that we continue to pursue. In the past, we were impacted by this whole Russia-Ukraine situation because some of the metal prices went up, catalyst prices went up. There were some short supplies. We risked that as well. The third is the overall currency risk, what's happening overseas in terms of the whole geopolitical instability.
Right now we've estimated our entire risk register has about 116 risks, overall, which is both internal risks as well as external risks, and we do discuss them on a continuous basis. We also have a task force internally for risk management. So this is kind of the overview.
Okay, thank you. I have one more question. You had talked about normalizing margins in the current year. So our past margin has been in the range of 14-15%, and in last one year, around 28%-30%. So are we talking about going to that 15% range, or it could be somewhat in between between those two numbers? I think there's... You know, I think we've left our commentary, you know, using the same words, right? I think normalized margins and moderate growth. I think it's something that we intentionally are using words and not numbers, and we are not intentionally referring to any past performance. I think as analysts, we would request you to make your own deductions in terms of what you deduce this to be.
But, you know, I think for us, we, we intentionally don't want to spell out any numbers, and at the same time, we don't want to point towards a particular year saying that the numbers are going to be this year. So, so I think, you know, at the expense of repeating ourselves, you know, the margin profile of the business, what we have seen last year, I think has been something that really shows the direction in which the business is evolving. But we had also indicated that there were several favorable factors, such as raw material costs, prices of products, exchange rates, et cetera, which also optimized our margins last year. What we, you know, had clarified post that, is that expect margins to normalize.
But what that would be is something perhaps, you know, you should be able to deduce. But I think our margins are definitely moved away from where we were a few years ago. Just, and that's more because the profile of the business has changed. I think, you know, 7, 8 years ago, we used to be 70% Prime products, now it's less than 30% Prime products. So obviously, you will also be able to gauge that the fundamental margins of the business have changed. But how it will be something that, I think we'll not, you know, try to even hint or guide.
Just to add to that, Avanish, there's obviously several other people listening in on the call. I think the reason we made that comment is because year-over-year, we grew 30%, and the year before that, the growth was about 24% year-over-year. So I think for us, it was important to come out and say that that's the kind of growth that we cannot expect year-over-year. So it was to be able to create more transparency to our stakeholders as well as investors, and that's the intent with which that comment was made, that, you know, those kind of growth over a long period of time are not sustainable. And fortunately or unfortunately, our business cycle doesn't necessarily coincide with the financial year or the calendar year.
So I think as long as that is understood, I think we continue to take a robust view about the overall business.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure the management is able to address questions from all participants, please limit your questions to one per participant. The next question will be from the line of Pranjal Mukija from GrowthSpurs Ventures LLP. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I on?
Yes, you are.
Yeah, thank you for the follow-up. So sir, I just wanted to highlight, like I wanted to highlight, some qualitative details about the new peptide DMF filing that you're planning to file. And along with that, like the 6-7 DMFs that you're planning to file this year, just some highlights on, you know, some description on, like, what are the areas, what kind of products are we filing for? So just some information would be really helpful. Thank you.
So, I think in terms of the peptide molecule, I think we have disclosed in the past that this is a molecule called difelikefalin, which is, you know, used for chronic kidney disorders and is also in development for other indications. Having said that, I think we are, we will be filing, but the commercialization will happen only post 2030. So I think this is more of making it part of our pipeline and also enabling any customers who are looking at filing for the, their filing. And if you look at the remaining 6 molecules also, which we have mentioned in the annual report as we target, I think there are molecules which have a good mix of... or most of them would be under what we call the specialty category.
Some of them will have a shorter time cycle in terms of commercialization, whereas probably around 50% or more will be more for the long term, as we continue to look at products not just for the immediate present, but from a long-term perspective too.
Thank you, sir. That helps.
Rahul, you can ask one more question too, if you have any. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thanks. Once again, we'd like to thank everyone for joining the call and asking us some interesting questions regarding the business. We appreciate your interest in,