Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Anthem Biosciences Q3 and FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call hosted by JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participants' 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 0 on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amey Chalke from JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Amey. Good afternoon and warm welcome to all the participants on Anthem Biosciences' Q3 FY 2026 Earnings Call hosted by JM Financial. Today on this call, we have with us from the management, Mr. Ajay Bharadwaj, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Ravi Behl, Chief Financial Officer. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Ajay Bharadwaj for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Amey. Namaskar. This is Ajay Bharadwaj, CEO and founder of Anthem Biosciences. I would like to start by reporting that our consolidated revenue from operations for the nine months ending on 31st December , 2025, for this financial year, that is, was INR 1,513 crores. The CRDMO business out of which was INR 1,260 crores, and the specialty ingredient delivered INR 254 crores. A very positive growth in EBITDA. EBITDA was stronger than ever at INR 671 crore, which gave us an EBITDA margin of 41.5%. This does include an additional income, other income of INR 105 crores, which was on account of forex gains, RoDTEP , and financial and other non-operating income. When you compare to the previous year, which was INR 72 crores, this time it's grown to INR 105 crores. Now, our PBT, before exceptional items, was INR 572 crores. We're very happy with this number.
Out of this year, there was one-time exceptional item of INR 25.4 crore. And it's largely because of the in November 21st, 2025, the government notified four new labor codes, and as a result of which, we had to take an exceptional item of INR 25.4 crore. Now, PAT after tax was INR 402 crore with our PAT margin at 24.8%. When you compare this with the previous year, this is after the exceptional item, with previous year was 25.7%. So in fact, PAT has grown from INR 369 crore in the previous nine months to this nine months to INR 402 crore. So our consolidated revenue from operations for the quarter, now Q3 I'm going to talk about, was INR 423 crore, out of which INR 333 crore was CRDMO and INR 90 crore was specialty ingredients. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 191 crore, which is 41.8%.
This also includes, as I've said, that there is other income of INR 33.5 crore. PBT before exceptional item was INR 156 crore. And PAT, that is profit after tax, was INR 93 crore, and PAT margin was 20.3%. In conclusion, I would like to say our nine-month FY 2026 performance has shown a steady progress in revenue terms, and with improving margin profile, our EBITDA has grown at 23%. And PBT before exceptional items has grown around by about 20%. Our quarterly revenue performance was lower than the Q3 of the previous financial year, and that was influenced largely by the higher base that we had that time, although the margin improvement utilized the revenue discrepancy.
The underlying demand, and in conclusion, our underlying demand remains robust, and our historically strongest quarter, which is the fourth quarter, is still ahead, and we are confident of delivering a strong finish to this financial year. This in a nutshell has been Anthem's performance for the nine months and the quarter that we just finished, that is Q3. So I'll leave the floor for questions. Anybody has any questions, I'd be very happy to me and along with me, Mr. Ravi Behl, who's our CFO, is also here. We'd be very happy to answer those.
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone 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'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Vivek Agarwal from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. Just want to understand your full year guidance, right? So in the nine months, the top line was in the low double digit, and the full year guidance was somewhere close to around 20%+. So is it still holding that guidance given that you also talked about that the fourth quarter is going to be strong? So just some color on the full year guidance, actually, that would be helpful.
Sure, Vivek. Ravi will respond to that.
So Vivek, with respect to our 9-month performance, although revenue has grown at about 11%-12%, we will have a strong finish to the year. Quarter four has traditionally been the highest quarter for us because that's the nature of the CDMO business, and we should be looking at a good quarter four as well. What we had mentioned was we would look at a revenue growth estimate of about 20% with EBITDA margins remaining constant, margin profile remaining steady. We'll also look at a margin growth of 20% both on EBITDA and PAT terms as well. What we are seeing right now is our margin has improved from last year numbers to current year numbers, and that has been on account of several factors, which we had talked about in terms of backward integration. Material margins have improved.
We have kept our cost under control from an operating leverage point of view. We'll continue to grow on the margins, and that will reflect in an EBITDA performance, which will be upwards of 20% from a guidance point of view for the full year as well, for FY 2026, as well as PAT margins upwards of 20%. In terms of revenue growth, it will be in the mid-teens, around 15%-16% is what we will be anticipating to end the year with. But our margin guidance of 20% plus on EBITDA and PAT remains intact, and we will look at delivering more than the numbers that we have talked about on it, 20% number for EBITDA and PAT.
Thanks. And given that we have seen a structural improvement, we have seen margin expansion, right? So how much is likely to be structural, right? So are we seeing some flow-through in FY 2027 as well, right? Because it looks like that the gross margins have expanded meaningfully, and the margins have expanded in EBITDA margin have expanded in this quarter despite sharp increase in employee expenses, etc., right? So is it fair to assume that in 2027 and 2028, for example, the margins may trend significantly higher than this year as well?
See, our aspiration is always to have the margin trend pointing north. If you look at our document as well, what we had submitted to SEBI when we were doing the IPO, we had mentioned that for one of the intermediates, a lot of for one of the customer products, a lot of intermediates was being outsourced, and hence our China procurement had gone up, had shot up in one particular year. What had happened over the course of this financial year is we have completely discontinued that China supplies because now we manufacture the intermediates in-house by procuring the raw materials, so we are completely backward integrated, and hence that shift is seen in the material margin improvement. Structurally, we want to ensure that material margin continues to improve.
On products as well, we want to have yield improvement so that that could benefit us as well as our customers. So material margin, we want to move trend north. Other expenses, as well as employee costs, are mostly less variable, more fixed in nature. So unless we are looking at a significant expansion, which we are, keeping in mind that new management is getting added, but this being fixed in nature, there would be a lot of some operating leverage, which should come in play. Having said so, we are operating at a good level from an EBITDA margin point of view, which is upwards of 40%, and we would want to keep our margin steady. Though aspiration-wise, we want to grow, but we would keep our margin steady.
Understood. And just last question, if I may ask, on revenues, right? So you have talked about that some slowdown because of high base, but is there any disruption in a couple of or one or two products, etc., and whether these products are expected to come back maybe in the fourth year or next year? If you can provide some color. Thank you.
Yeah, this is a business question for sure. A lot of our peers, and this is a global phenomenon because we've had a very turbulent last nine or a year or so in terms of uncertainty in the marketplace, and uncertainty certainly with regard to funding as well as our customers' future plans. So many companies did have they have destocked a little bit, and they have rationalized their stocks to lower level of safety stocks. So that is one reason why there's been a little slowdown. Otherwise, we were very confident of delivering 20% growth in the top line as well.
However, that situation will be in our minds, and what we hear from them is that that will be corrected in the subsequent year. So we are very hopeful. We're very positive. Nothing has changed materially for us on the ground, and we continue to add more customers in the biotech space and also have added, actually, in this year, some large pharma customers as well. The numbers are not significant yet, but once you add big pharma customers, some of these numbers can become very significant. So we are very, very positive about FY 2027 and FY 2028.
That is great. So just you have added one large pharma customer this year, right? So can you provide some more clarity, like advanced molecules or some, for example, molecules in the starting phase, like phase one or phase two?
No, we've added more than one large customer. So some of it is development work. Some of these products have been approved, so they are going into the market. But as you know, when a new product approval comes in, it takes time to build sales. But what's good is that we are in with the customer on supply of advanced intermediates. And should the product grow, and that, of course, depends on the success in the marketplace, but obviously, big companies always have a better possibility of achieving success
We will grow with them. So our bet is on the fact that as our customers grow, we will ride on that to grow strongly. At the same time, we've actually, as we said before, we've added four new approvals and four new products in the last year in this year, rather, which have gone to got approval. We feel we are in a very good position to benefit from them subsequently.
Understood, sir. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you. Thank you, Vivek.
Thank you so much, sir. Our next question comes from the line of Saion Mukherjee from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. On next year, you indicated things should get better. So should we expect growth closer to what your trajectory has been around 20% in fiscal 2027 on back of the existing commercial product and the new launches that you had ramping up?
Yeah, Saion, tough question to answer. I am very optimistic, but can I give it? I mean, we're not finished with this year. When we are more into the next year early, we'll have more visibility. But obviously, as we have said before, and that has not changed, our business tends to be lumpy. It tends to be good in some quarters, not so good in other quarters. But directionally, we are looking northwards in terms of top line and bottom line, and we expect to maintain. So if you're saying in the next five years, will we have a CAGR of what we've had in the last five years? I expect so. But will be immediately next year? I can't say till I'm a little bit into that year. It's a little bit still distant from us, but it won't be for the want of trying.
We have been very good in terms of discipline, in terms of execution, and that hasn't changed. What also not changed is our customers' confidence in us and the regulatory environment for us. If anything, with the new announcement, which is that India and U.S. are friends again all over, there is nothing, no tensions in trade, that will also, which actually put a lot of unease in our customers' mind, that also has and then with the EU-India trade deal, we expect that things are now on even keel. So that's always good for business, and I'm very positive.
Great. Just to get some color because there are a lot of moving parts here. If I understand correctly, the last few years, you had quite a good ramp-up in some of your commercial products. Now, when you look forward for the next couple of years, which will be a bigger growth driver for Anthem? Would it be the ramp-up of your recently commercialized products like the four that you had or the ones which are already in the market? You could get more volumes, market share. How should we think? Or you also talked about lateral contracts. I'm wondering, can those sort of start ramping up very quickly? These are the three drivers that I see. If you can give some color as to which one would be the most or if you can rate the importance of these drivers for you, at least in the short term?
Yeah, again, you're asking a very tough question. My simple answer will be all of the above. We would love to see all of them grow. We expect that the commercial products, which have still the ones that we are already supplying to, which are our established products, they have still a lot of headroom to grow. And there are many major markets where approvals are awaited. So I expect that there we'll have some very decent numbers. And as you rightly said, some of these new products, I expect that they will be a little slower to take off in the next year if you're looking at next year. But three or four years from now, we could be laughing all the way to the bank, as they say, because these would become major products.
There is a lot of effort on our side to go laterally into companies, and that is also yielding fruits. So this is a hard one to answer. They've shown a lot of interest, and if we hit a jackpot with one or two of them, it'll be wonderful. But can I predict it at this point? I don't have a crystal ball. I'm afraid not. But if you say cumulatively all these three activities, that is what matters. Put together, it will give us a stronger foundation and a stronger base, and therefore, we'll be more steady. So I'm not worried. And you're rightly, Saion, you pointed out the three corners on which we are edifices on which we are building, fourth being our specialty ingredients.
Also, Saion, the existing molecules, the base is higher. For the new molecules which have just gone commercial, base is lower. So from a base effect point of view, if you look at it, the percentage growth might be slightly higher for the newer molecules just because the base is too small for them. Existing molecules, even if we continue to grow at a decent rate over there, that will help us that will compensate the overall basket will then show a good growth across both existing and new.
Understood. Just if I can ask one last question before I join. This material cost to sales, you explained it is the gross margin improvement because of intermediate supplies now coming to India. Is the full impact already there in the numbers, or how should we think about this number in the quarters ahead? Please. Thanks.
The impact is there in the numbers. But see, that's with respect to a particular product in the CDMO revenue stream. So the material margin is a component which is a weighted average across multiple products in CDMO as well as products in the specialty ingredients side. But to answer your question, the full impact is there because we don't source the intermediate anymore from China, and we are completely now backward integrated with the filings, everything taken care of. So outsourcing is nil right now. So the full impact is baked in.
This level of margin should sustain, in your view, the gross margin?
Yes, should be. We should be able to do that. Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bansi Desai from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is on our pipeline, if you can comment on how this has grown, particularly early phase, phase I, phase II. We know phase III, out of 10 molecules, four have been commercialized. So probably you would have six in the phase III as of today, if you can just update on that. And out of the early phase, any indication as to how many of them are likely to move into phase III, in your view, in the next 1-2 years?
So Bansi, with respect to early phase molecules, we still have similar numbers, about 130-140 numbers which are there on the pipeline side. I think on the phase two programs, it will be about five or six of them which would be in the phase two side, which we would expect to move towards phase three in the next couple of years, 18-30 months sort of a time frame, subject to they clearing the development hurdles because in our business, it's also subject to the clinical trials risk. So the pipeline on early stage is still robust.
On the phase three side, we haven't added any more from what it was in quarter two of last year. Four molecules went commercial, so still at six. There was one particular molecule which had gone through FDA review. I think it has come back to the company for additional work. So we are waiting for an outcome of that to understand what is the status of the phase III molecule. But as of now, phase III numbers remain the same.
Then we generally hear improvement in the biotech funding environment in the recent months. Also, there has been a lot of pent-up demand given the funding environment has been weak altogether in the last two, three years. Are we likely to see benefits of that trickling to us as we go ahead? Are we likely to see more expansion of our pipeline, early phase products, especially?
Yeah. That's a very good observation, Bansi, because actually, your estimation is absolutely correct. We are seeing an improvement in environment. A lot of many requests for RFQs have come in the last one quarter, and it suddenly wasn't looking so healthy for a while now, but it is turning around. That's what we hear from our customers as well, which is always good news for us. If the rest of the geopolitical scene settles down, of course, that is something you and I can't control.
But if it happens, and all indications are that at least on the trade side, we are now not at loggerheads with major Western partners, I think it will be really good for us. So yeah, you're absolutely right. I think new things are going to happen. The rest is, of course, we can just hope and pray that the success of molecules in the marketplace gets better. And that's something that, again, we have no control on it. But if that happens, again, Anthem will be a direct beneficiary.
That's good to know. And maybe my second question. Therefore, on rather Semaglutide API, given the product is going to go generic very soon, we have spoken in the past about manufacturing API for domestic generic players here once the product goes off patent. So how should we think about that opportunity? We also, at the same time, hear China being extremely competitive. I know you've mentioned in the past that you are also going to be competitive in terms of pricing, but how do you see this whole opportunity playing out for us?
Well, as we have said repeatedly, we are very much in the mix. However, many companies in India are also taking a big bet on it. But again, I would say we are among the very few who are completely backward integrated. That is Anthem's mantra. Has always been that we, as you saw, improvement of margins this year. If we are dependent on some critical raw materials or a critical input from sources outside of India or which are not under our control, we work quite assiduously to make sure that we reverse that situation. So even in the case of Semaglutide, we are arguably the most backward integrated company in the country. So over the long term, we see a very good play in it.
We are in conversations and in advanced stage of supplying raw materials for different types of testing to many of the customers who many of our customers within India who are playing in that space. So yeah, it is very much a position for us that we have taken. But I just want to say, for us, peptide is more than just GLP-1 Semaglutide. We are working with innovators, and we're working with many other small biotechs because this is an area of very large interest.
So Anthem has made a sizable investment in developing peptide chemistries. And so we work with innovators to ensure that we work on novel molecules as well. So GLP is a more immediate opportunity. However, as we can all imagine, you yourself mentioned, China will be very aggressive. But we believe we'll be able to face the competition. But that's more immediate. But we also have a long-term plan in peptides.
All right. Thank you so much. I'll join back to you.
Thanks. Thanks, Bansi.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. So I have one question on the capacity utilization. So is it possible for us to give utilization across unit one, two, three? And are we fine with the available capacity for the 20% growth expectation for next two years?
Yeah. On capacities, we have no problems. We've mentioned expansion units just now, even in unit two. So Ravi will give you the numbers, the details. But yeah, capacity-wise, we are good. And this can take care of the next couple of years. Meanwhile, our unit four will also become available. So as we have said repeatedly, we have to be bold in planning expansion and also have a fair degree of perspicacity to see that this business is now is pointing in this direction and make those bets in advance. So capacities-wise, we're okay. Sorry, Ravi, you want to elaborate?
Yeah, I'll elaborate. So specifically on unit-by-unit capacity utilizations that you have asked for, see, unit one is a small-scale facility, 25 KL custom synthesis capacity. And we are almost operating at about close to 75% occupancy over there. Unit two, where we have 376 KL capacity from a custom synthesis manufacturing point of view. And in the last quarter, we had just commissioned the CP7, which is a new block, which was about 76 KL. So that block is yet to be utilized. Leaving that aside, on 300 KL of capacity, we are roughly about 75% utilized over there.
So we have close to about 20% incremental capacity to add up over there. New Anthem, which is the third unit, that's still underutilized because that also is in a very early stage from a capacity from a ramping-up mode. So there, we have significant scope to add more utilization. So that's on the custom synthesis side. Fermentation, new Anthem is yet to be commissioned. On Anthem fermentation, 140 KL, we would be about 46%-47% capacity utilized. So that has decent capacity to continue on the growth part.
Right. We do have scope for further brownfield expansion in unit two, unit three, or this is what we have added so far?
Unit one full, unit two full, no scope of expansion. The scope of expansion which was there, we added in this financial year where we added 130 KL. Okay? Unit three, after this initial completion of this expansion, which is the fermentation capacity, what we have done is we have constructed shelves which could be repurposed. So the reason why we have constructed shelves is it prevents any element of civil work and hence any disruption which could happen onto the overall infrastructure in unit three. So we have constructed three different shelves which could be repurposed and where we can quickly fit out on custom synthesis or fermentation or any other form of expansion which you want to do. So there are three blocks which are empty blocks in unit three.
Right. And in unit.
So we have hope to expand over there.
Sure. In Unit 4, have we finalized yet on the modalities which we would be making in the new unit, or is it yet to be done?
So some of it is going to be small-scale molecule expansion which we know we will need because a lot of the thrust in early development is in small-scale molecules. So again, going by past performance, some of these molecules will start moving towards commercialization, and we will need extra capacity. So that is going to happen. Then we are going to be expanding more in peptides. We need to add more fermentation because large-scale fermentation because there are projects that are being discussed with us on that, then oligos. So these are some of the novel and if some of the peptide projects start looking rosier, then we will add more oncology that is high-potent capacities as well.
Sure. The last question I have is on the fermentation side. We have a good experience of working on the fermentation-related technology. But so far, we have been limited to only pharma. Is there any thought process of going into non-pharma fermentation opportunities because some of our peers are also thinking on that front? Yeah. Thank you, sir.
Yeah. You're right, Amey. If there is opportunity to do something which is non-pharma and it will give us the right IP protection for our clients and the right kind of product, yes, we'll look at it for sure. We are having some of those discussions. In some way, it's not new to us. We do nutrition-based products anyway which are fermentation-based, and they are non-pharma. We might even look at something industrial if it is the right product mix and it has a great future. We have some discussions with respect to that as well. Yes.
Sure. Last question I have on the specialty ingredients. What would be the growth driver for specialty ingredients for the next 2-3 years? One is the GLP-1. Apart from this, what all things would drive the growth in specialty ingredients? Thank you, and I will join back to you.
Okay. Thanks, Amey. So on specialty ingredients, there are three growth drivers. One, obviously, you've talked about on GLP-1. The second one is we're investing significantly on fermentation. The intent over there is a lot of probiotic work, what we do for our clients. A significant amount of probiotic strains gets imported from outside of India. And hence, we have tied up with a fairly large Indian customer where we are looking at. From an import substitution point of view, we would be supplying that probiotics to them going forward for India market as well as for.
For other customers as well?
With reference to this customer, for India market as well as for ROW markets. For other customers, the probiotics part will be a significant growth story on the specialty ingredient side. The third growth factor for specialty ingredients is the biosimilar products. We are working on the development of a biosimilar product for a particular US customer which is an approved biosimilar drug. They manufacture it outside of India. We've been working with them on the development of this biosimilar so that the manufacturing could shift to India, and we can supply to them from India.
Major growth drivers are these three. Existing products, we still will continue to grow. We have a couple of products on Vitamin K2-7, Serratiopeptidase. These are flagship fermentation-based products. We will continue to grow in those products. Probiotic strains, enzymes, these are all organic growth. These are the new areas where probiotics is not a new area specifically, but it's a focus area for us. And the new areas are the GLP-1 and the biosimilars for us for specialty ingredients growth.
Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Neha Manpuria from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Ajay Bharadwaj, as we are starting work or doing work on unit 4, you mentioned that obviously, there's a fair bit of order that you're sort of building up. But how should we think about creating capacity versus getting into new business? Particularly if I look at CapEx across peers, both in India, China, and Europe on the CDMO side, is that capacity investment essential to get new business? That's my first question. And second, on peptides, while you did mention that you want to get more on peptides, what do you think differentiates Anthem on its ability to get more business on peptides? How should we get more confidence around that? Thank you.
Thank you, Neha. The first question is very important and also a little bit of a philosophical question. How do we decide what capacities to put? Listen, again, for everybody who's on this call, in our business, first, we have to build it, and then they will come. Our customers want to see that we have the capability as well as the capacity to handle the project. Then only they are interested in giving us the project. See, we all admire China's scale, but they built capacity, and then they were able to fill it up with the business from the world. So some of that, sometimes, I think we have to do it carefully. And so far, we've managed our CapEx versus our business fairly well. And that's reflected in our return on our ROCs, which are very strong. We have to build new capacities.
Then only we can attract more customers. So when do we start building these new capacities? You start building them in advance of when you see that some of these projects that you are looking at, which are in phase two now, may advance to phase three and phase three to commercial. So at that point, you have to plan your capacities. And that's why we are so bullish about it. Second, of course, is our projects tend to be greenfield. It's very hard for us. We have looked around for acquiring a good asset, but it's very hard to find really good assets.
So we build greenfield a lot and to a standard that will pass muster with regulators as well as our own internal standards as well as our customer standards. And I think we are second to none when it comes to that. That's another reason why we have to start building in advance. The question that you asked on peptides, well, without taking any names, we are already making a few peptides commercially. All of them are in the generic space, and we supply to customers in India and also in talks with customers overseas now. With GLP-1, which our partners all recognize that we have the ability to do it.
That is the reason why innovator companies are looking at Anthem to partner with us to develop new peptides. If they didn't have confidence in our ability, they will not come to us. So peptides is something we have, I would say, reached a fair degree of proficiency in making and developing. We are in a good place there. I don't have any names to give you, but trust me and believe me that we are among the pioneers in peptide development in the country now.
I'd like to add something, Neha, on this. See, peptides, we started work around 2012, 2013, 2014, around that time when we were doing lab-scale work for most of our customers. We currently work with innovator peptides. Close to about eight, nine programs are there on innovator peptides which are under development. From lab scale, now, we have expanded into a full-blown 16 kilometers commercial-scale manufacturing facility at New Anthem. It's a fantastic facility. You should come visit and see us on the peptide facility. So as a competitiveness or a differentiator to customers, we have the ability of doing discovery, development, and commercial manufacturing on peptides and manufacturing at scale with the new facility which has just come up.
So that gives a unique good proposition for customers to keep the products more development or in a large-scale project also to come to us because you don't then need to venture out somewhere else looking out for capacity to tech transfer the project. So that's a differentiator for us. On the generic peptide, GLP-1, as I did talk about, we are completely backward integrated over there. We manufacture the fermentation fragment as well as do the synthesis. And only company in India to be completely backward integrated and hence be competitive from a cost point of view to compete against the Chinese on semaglutide. So that's the uniqueness or the competitiveness when we target our Indian customers who are looking at tapping the ROW markets as well as India markets in the GLP-1 space, the generic semaglutide space side.
That's very helpful, sir. Just a follow-up on the first question. So unit three, as we see it ramping up probably in 2027, more so in fiscal 2028, would it be fair to assume that we get to that 1.4, 1.5 asset turn probably in three years' time? Would that be a fair assumption?
I would say that's a good assumption. Definitely, we have to do it.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Jay Gandhi from Dalal & Broacha. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So I just wanted to confirm on the 4 new molecules that have been approved in the past quarter, have they started contributing to our revenues? And I mean, when can we see a full ramp-up of these molecules?
Yes, they have contributed revenues for this nine months because customers have taken smaller batches because they are just looking at launching this product in the market. But I think the major impact we will get to see only towards the end of this calendar year when we get to know more orders from them. This is still at an early stage of commercial launch. So if I have to see a full-blown impact, maybe it might take a couple of years for these four commercial molecules to show good results as what our existing molecules have shown. Okay. And.
Do you know something?
Sure.
Sorry. Go ahead.
No, no, sir. Go ahead, sir.
I was just going to add that the products which are with small biotechs, they don't really take off right away because more often than not, these companies are already parallelly negotiating to sell themselves to big pharma. So there is always a little now that they have an approved product, they are taking quantities to go for a launch. But at the same time, they're also working on mergers and acquisitions as a result of which we very often find that only after big pharma steps in, there is a possibility of a quick ramp-up. But this is not something, again, an event that we know fully of, and we can't control it also. But this is another reason why sometimes there is a lag between the product being commercially approved and giving you the full benefit of full-blown commercial success. So that time, we have to wait.
Okay. Sir, is the end market potential for these products lucrative enough for large pharmas? Any indication? Any indication? I mean, what size could they reach? Anything you can? Are they expected to be blockbusters?
Yeah, some of them are. And remember, very often, the indication in which they get their first approval is usually a small or an orphan indication that is just to get the product approved. Parallelly, people start working immediately on other indications. And that's what's happening with these molecules. And that's the reason why they've taken more material for more clinical trials as well. So very often, a small molecule indication is an entry point. And after that is when the expansion takes place. So some of these products are in that mode as well. One of our biggest products got one approval. Today, it has six or seven indications which are approved. And that's what makes it a blockbuster. So this is happening parallelly.
Just to add, Jay, I think in the last call, I would have given some estimates of the peak market sales for these 4 products. Roughly, peak market sales roughly about $10 billion. I mean, I haven't checked any changes on the analyst estimates for these 4 end molecules in this course of the last 2, 3 months unless numbers would have changed significantly. But my sense is it's a $10 billion estimate across the 4 molecules which got commercial for us.
Okay. Perfect, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Karthik Bane from Bajaj Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. I just wanted to understand this INR 1,000 crore CapEx for Unit 4 that we have planned in terms of two years. So where exactly are we? What would be the execution milestones and bottlenecks to watch out for?
So Karthik, currently, the civil work is going on. So what we are doing is it's a 30-acre land parcel. So we are looking at a phase one and a phase two. So we are looking at only half of the land parcel right now to construct. And the civil work is ongoing right now. So significant capacity sorry, spends haven't happened because construction takes time. I think in March 2027, financial year, we'll have a major portion of CapEx going out for this 1,000-crore phase one expansion that we are doing. It's still in an early stage civil work mode right now on unit four.
Okay. And secondly, on the EBITDA margin outlook or the growth that we have got, how much is contributed by the constant currency as most of our projects are also outside India?
So, see, if you look at it, what we have given out in the financial is so specialty ingredients is pure play India income because 90% of the business is India and specialty ingredients. CDMO is where it's completely export-oriented and dollar-denominated. Whatever increment so we, as a policy, don't hedge. And hence, whatever appreciation from a currency, what we have seen is what we recognize as an FX income, which we have articulated as the other operating income in the opening statement that Ajay had mentioned. The other operating income, which is not factored in the revenue line item, in the revenue from operations line item, is about INR 41 crore for nine months. And for this quarter, it is about INR 6.4 crore.
Okay. Lastly, of the molecules in the early stages, do we have any ADCs there? Out of these 130, 140, how many would be ADCs?
In late-stage, there is 1 molecule which is in phase III. There is 1 molecule which is their ADC. In the early-stage, I would say we'll have about 6-7 programs which are ongoing.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Karthik.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjay Kumar from iThoughts PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First, it's just a follow-up on semaglutide. Are we focusing on the Oral Sema or the injectable version of semaglutide? And last quarter, I think we had said that process validation is underway. So any timelines for filing DMF, and have we signed any customers in India?
See, we are not in the fill-finish thing. So we focus on Semaglutide as the active, not the oral or injectable. And yes, we have signed up with a bunch of customers in India. Are we filing a DMF in the U.S. yet? No. But that is something which will be subsequent because at the moment, most of our customers are focused on launching it in ROW. And that is something which we are very, very well geared up for. And yes, we've done validation batches and all the rest of it. So we haven't filed the DMF, though we are in a position to do it.
Mishal, [Foreign language]
Hello? Any calls?
Yes, please continue.
Okay. So as I said, though we haven't filed the DMF, though all the documentation and CMC document needed for that is ready. We are working with our customers to do that. Yes, we are working with major Indian companies in this space.
No, I understand it's the API. But the customers who have signed with us, will they be using it for oral or injectable version? Do we have any visibility on that, or we don't?
Many of them are trying to develop oral. Oral is a little hard, but everybody will use it for injectable right away. But oral also has patents which are longer which go a little further. But yeah, I know that there are a few people who are working on orals as well. So oral will definitely be in the mix.
Okay. Okay. Second, a couple of questions on biosimilars. We have repurposed a plant for biosimilar. What is the reactor scale or the capacity from this plant? And the product that we have signed, is it a mAb or a fusion protein?
Oh, it's a microbial biosimilar. Our capacity is we have two trains, each of 200 liters for fermentation. And that can produce a lot of product because microbial fermentations are usually one or two days only as opposed to CHO, CHO-fermentation, which can be weeks. So yeah, it is a large molecule based on a microbial bug. It's a microbe.
Got it. Got it. What is the current global market size for these biosimilars? What revenue can we expect in, say, FY 2028 for this product?
Oh, this product is massive. It's gone biosimilar a long time ago. And there are other players in it. But the company that we are working with has a decent market share in the U.S. So they already have got this product in the market which they currently make in the U.S. The idea for them is to stop that production and shift that production to us so that they can get all the advantages of Anthem's technology as well as the low-cost input that we provide.
And they have a fairly decent business already. Remember, this particular area, it's been generic for a long time. There has been no replacement for it. There are other players who make this. But in this space, though this is a very old molecule, it's the only one that is approved for this indication. And no new replacements have come. It has stood the test of time.
Okay. Okay. Can you comment on the future pipeline for biosimilars? You said this is a microbial. Can we also do a CHO-based mammalian biosimilars? Where are we on the other biosimilars?
Yeah, Sanjay. Yeah, Sanjay, we are working on a bunch of projects there. And those are also biosimilars. Again, we have chosen some products where there are no biosimilars available even though the product has gone off patent. And we are working with one of them is fairly advanced. And we expect that that should go in the market in the next two years.
Oh, then is this 200 liters capacity enough for us?
We'll have to build new capacity for that. That's something which is going to be a separate facility. Unit 3, we've created, as we said, the infrastructure already, what we are putting in place. That's already past the design stage. We are now just negotiating with vendors to supply partly single-use and partly fixed fermentation for CHO-form.
Okay. Final question is, again, what will be the CapEx that will be needed to set up a 16-kL peptide facility? Just trying to understand the replacement cost.
See, if you look at proportionate CapEx including the other utilities which is set up as part of the facilities, then roughly, it will be about INR 200-odd crore.
Okay. Okay. Got it. And from this 200.
Because that will be you set up other utilities like ETP and ancillary blocks, etc., which is common to the facility common to the plant. But you have to have other blocks are there. So you have to proportion that as well. So from that point of view, it will be roughly about INR 200 crore which will be there.
Okay. Let's say we make 200 kg output of peptides. What kind of EBITDA margin can we make in peptides, GLP-1s or other generic peptides?
Oh, yeah, we are very confident that we'll be able to do what we have the numbers. We have done the numbers. I don't have them in front of me. But it is eminently doable. We, so far, have been laser-focused, I would say, paranoid about margins. And I don't see that going away. Trust me, we are in a very good place as far as see, for instance, you just take GLP-1. Making the peptide is only half the story.
There is a fermentation element. So you have to be able to do fermentation effectively and at a price which at a cost all of you know P-29. P-29 from China is very, very competitive and cheap. We find that still a very attractive proposition. We don't see any worries there. So if you take the whole manufacture of, say, GLP-1 right away, right from fermentation to the finished product, we will be able to get the EBITDAs that we've historically been used to.
Okay. So even if, let's say, Sema API prices crash to, say, $100 per gram, we could still make 35% kind of EBITDA margins in peptides?
Oh, absolutely. INR 100 would be a nice price. It's a dream.
Wow. Okay. That's good to hear, sir. I think.
I believe it will go lower than that. But yeah, 100 would be very nice.
Okay. Okay. Got it. I think that's it from my side. All the best. And thank you.
Thanks. Thanks, Sanjay.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vivek Gautam from GS Investments. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Sir, I just wanted to know about any destocking we are facing in any molecule. So that is leading to some sort of soft performance over the last few quarters. The situation might improve in the coming quarters. The second question was about what portion of our portfolio will comprise of GLP1 drugs in FY 2028. Thank you.
Yeah, Vivek, you're right about some stocking. There has been hello?
So yeah. Yes, sir.
Some problem with the line. See, there has been some definitely because of the general geopolitical tension that we have seen in the last one year where we have been in loggerheads with major trading partner, United States. It has put a lot of anxiety in the mind of big pharma and as well as small biotechs. So people have been very wary about building up too much stock and carrying too much inventory. So they have been a little bit mindful of reducing the number of days of safety stock. So that has affected us. Otherwise, we would have been a bumper growth this quarter also.
But again, we are seeing signs of recovery that all the destocking that had to happen has happened. And these results that we are reporting are subsequent to that. So we feel that going forward, we will be in a very good position as far as filling up the new requirement which will be post-destocking. So that is one. On the GLP, again, what percentage of revenue, I don't know. Hard to say. But will it be a significant part of our turnover? I don't think so. But it still will be a major contributor to our top line as well as our bottom line.
Sir, this recent budget announcement of India, was there some incentive for the biopharma companies and trade deals being signed in U.S., E.U., U.K., and other countries also? How does that place us, sir? Thank you.
Yeah, the details of that, Vivek, are yet unknown. So I don't really know how this will play out with the U.S. and all that. But yeah, the government is encouraging which is a good thing. The government sees biotech as a strategic sector of economy. It should have been recognized long ago. But it's better late than never. And I think that this will definitely have a very positive impact on. But they are offering incentives and PLI-based things. I don't know. I don't know. The details will still come out.
But Anthem is already regardless of what the government policy is, we are going to be we are firmly entrenched in this. We have been doing this for two decades. And before that, I have been involved for four decades in this now. So biotech is very close to us. And we will continue to. So if the winds become favorable from the side of the government, then it even gives us more tailwinds. So I'm just very bullish about this. I'm super confident that biotech, which we have talked about for such a long time as a sector, its time has come.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Vivek.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, that was the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you. And over to you, team.
Thank you very much to JM and to all the people who were on the line. Unfortunately, only so much time and only that many questions. As we said, we would communicate to us we have tried to be as transparent and as open about how we see the prospect of Anthem and where Anthem is headed. And we really appreciate the support that we've got from the investors and the investment community. And you will see that regardless of what happens going forward in the geopolitical situation, Anthem will continue to invest, continue to invest in technology. And our edge, which is something that we are laser-focused on, is doing the same things differently and doing different things. That will not change. That is our mantra. And thank you very much for being on this call. I look forward to talking to you again at the end of the year.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.