Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Anthem Biosciences Limited Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Forum Goshar from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Goshar.
Good morning, everyone. I am Forum Goshar from Adfactors PR Investor Relations. On behalf of Anthem Biosciences Limited, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call. Joining us on the call today from the management team are Mr. Ajay Bhardwaj, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Gawir Baig, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin today's call with opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the floor for question and answer session. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking in nature. These statements are based on the management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.
Anthem Biosciences Limited undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements based on subsequent events or developments. I would like to now hand over the call to Mr. Ajay Bhardwaj to deliver his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. This is Ajay Bhardwaj. I'm pleased to announce our first quarter results for the financial year FY 2027. Our consolidated revenues from operations for the quarter were INR 418 crores, out of which the CRDMO business contributed 81.5% of the revenues, delivering INR 341 crores. Specialty Ingredients contributed 18.5% of our revenues, delivering INR 78 crores. The EBITDA was INR 176 crores, including other income, with EBITDA margin at 39.6%. That is nearly 40%. The EBIT includes other income of INR 25 crores. PBT was INR 145 crores. Our profit after tax for the quarter was INR 120 crores, with PAT margins at 27.1%. Net cash position of the company as of June 30th, 2026, was INR 1,720 crores. Our first quarter of FY 2027 results reflect timing shifts in deliveries to key customers.
The underlying demand remains strong, with a higher concentration of scheduled deliveries in the latter half of the year. We are positioning to capture that momentum. We remain firmly committed to sustaining revenue growth aligned with our long-term historical performance. On the margins front, we delivered year-on-year improvements across both EBITDA and PAT margins. Our disciplined focus on cost efficiencies, yield optimization, and employee productivity continues to reinforce our industry-leading margin profile, positioning us to sustain this performance throughout the year. Thank you very much. Now I'm open to questions. I have with me my colleague, Mr. Gawir Baig, who's our CFO. Any questions, we'll be happy to answer.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star then one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star then 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. The first question is from the line of Saion Mukherjee from Nomura Group. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for taking my question. Can you update on the capacity utilization at Unit I, II, and Neoa nthem as of first quarter? How should we think about utilization levels in these units change in the course of the next three years? Also, any timeline with respect to regulatory inspection required for Unit III by U.S. FDA or European authorities?
Thanks, Saion. I think with respect to our capacity utilization, last year when we ended the year, Unit I was about 74% utilized. We continue to have the same utilization in our Unit I and even this quarter, roughly about 78% utilized right now on the custom synthesis side. Unit II was about 65% utilized last year for the full year because we had gone through significant expansion over there by adding about 130 kL. This quarter being a slightly softer quarter, our utilization was about 50% for Unit II across the expanded capacity on custom synthesis side. Fermentation utilization is about 50% for Unit II across that 140 kL that we have in fermentation. Unit III has been picking up from a utilization point of view, roughly about 30%-35% is the utilization for quarter one of FY 2027.
This is a ramp-up from what we had about 15%-odd of utilization in FY 2026. There is a ramp-up in Unit III. What do we expect going forward? I think we expect all of these units to be completely full, and that's the reason why Unit IV is what we are setting up. We are in the midst of construction over there, and I think by end of next year, we'll be able to commission Unit IV, which can add another 365 kL of custom synthesis and 100 kL of fermentation. In the next two years, we would look at ramping it up to almost optimum capacity utilization across all the three units.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Just one clarification. The increased utilization at Neoa nthem is primarily the shifting of some production from the existing units to Neoa nthem. Is that what is happening?
Some of it is that, but most of it is new orders that we are getting because we have a very modern pilot plant there. We have also our peptide synthesis and oncology manufacturing there. Some new projects are being put into that unit now. It is not just shifting some of it is mostly new projects that are coming into Unit III.
Okay, thank you. Just one more question. In the quarter, is there any update on, say, new contracts, new client traction, large pharma, mid pharma, any development that you would like to share? Some of the initiatives on peptides, et c., if you can talk about any traction that you've seen over the last three months.
Yeah. In terms of adding customers, we actually have one new big pharma customer which has been added. We expect that to yield significant numbers going forward. One of our large customers, a biotech customer, also got acquired by a big pharma. That is something that we still yet to pan out. This happened very recently, maybe a month old. It all continues to be good. Just to, again, add to your query, when Gawir was answering that 50% utilization of Unit II in this quarter, and the subsequent quarters, we are very confident of having much better numbers because our customers have deferred deliveries to the quarter two and quarter three and four . The capacity utilization is only going to go up. We continue to be very bullish for the year.
We have very high degree of visibility because 60% of what we need to do, we already have order book. We are sitting on a very strong order book that gives us the confidence that we'll achieve our growth that we intended to do right at the beginning of the year.
Thank you. Sir, just one clarification, though. You mentioned one new big pharma significant contribution possible. Any timeline that you have, like in how much time we will see that traction showing up in numbers?
Well, it should happen in the latter quarters of this year. The agreement hasn't yet been signed, but it's in the works. Sometimes these drag out, but the customer's on board, it's just a matter of now crossing the T's and dotting the I's, and that's happening.
Okay, this is like a existing commercial project that you would be starting to manufacture? Or this is a new molecule?
It's an engagement, this is a multidimensional engagement. There's R&D, there's new projects. Some products that they need, which they're sourcing from. They want to diversify their supply chain. That's going to happen as well.
Okay, understood. Thanks a lot, sir. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Udit Bokaria from Catamaran. Please go ahead.
Thanks for giving the opportunity. I just wanted to understand, you had mentioned that we have a visibility of 60%. Usually at the start of the quarter, what is the visibility which we have for next quarter sales? Secondly, if you can just bifurcate what constitutes the remaining 40% across Or if you can just give what is the visibility which you get in your manufacturing business, what is the visibility which you get in your R&D business, and what is the visibility you get in your Specialty Ingredient business?
Specialty Ingredients business, let me address that first. That's an ongoing business. That's largely India-focused. That is month-on-month we get orders. Some of them are, of course, long-term contracts, but this is more of a B2B business within India. When it comes to quarter-on-quarter, we get visibility. Some of the large customers, they give us orders for the whole year forecast. It's a rolling forecast, which is revised and updated every three to six months. We have a fair degree of visibility there because these need to be manufactured and there's a lot of raw materials that need to be procured. We have that window to know that.
When it comes to R&D, that is, again, whenever we sign a contract, we know that the next quarter, this is what our deliveries are, and sometimes it spills into the quarter after that also. Generally, that's an ongoing input we get, but largely for one or two quarters, there is predictability. When we are going in at the beginning of the year, when we have something like 50% of next year's order book already in our hand, we feel confident that the rest of the 50% will make up in the rest of the year. This year, after one quarter, admittedly it's a muted quarter, we still have 60% of our order book full. We are very confident about what will happen for the rest of the year.
Usually the remaining portion is won through new clients which we are onboarding? Or it could be even for your existing products which you supply customers increase the volumes?
It's usually a mix of both. We still have three more quarters to go this year, and that's a long time, and we will onboard some new customers. That's an unknown. That should contribute at least some percentage of sales. However, some of the existing customers. Like, very recently, one of our customers came back and said, "Can you supply us extra material this year?" We said, "Yes, we could." That PO got factored in. Additionally, there is also, in terms of, sometimes the projects in the biotech customers that we have get very healthy clinical outcomes, and suddenly there's a new order that they need because they need to do the next phase. It's a mix of both. There's no one suit that fits all, not one size that fits all. Yeah, all of them is happening at the same time.
Just to clarify over here, the order book that we're talking is largely for the CRDMO business. Specialty Ingredients is a normal day-to-day, month-on-month business which needs to be delivered. The order book concept is largely because for CRDMO business, we need to procure the raw materials and manufacture it. There's a lead time in terms of manufacturing it and also procuring the raw material, hence we get orders in advance. When we started off the year, we were with about 60% of the order book for the full year delivery. Now even after quarter one, we have replenished the order book. Even right now also we stand with about 60% of the order book still being there.
Understood. This 60% visibility which you mentioned is only for the CRDMO segment or when we say this is for the whole business, like how should one interpret?
When I talked about 60% as a number, as a fraction, that's for the whole business.
My second question, sir, we had highlighted that like last year also, we had onboarded two new big pharma as clients, current year also, as you mentioned, we have onboarded another big pharma as a client. I just wanted to understand where are we currently in terms of discussion for some of lateral projects or already commercialized molecules and what stage? Have they already audited and have we already signed contracts, and when can we see those translating into orders?
When we onboard a new customer, there are two ways it's done. One is they acquire an existing asset that we've been working on. Largely, they leave the team untouched for a year or two years because it's a new acquisition for them. It remains business as usual for some time. The lateral entry we get, only early this month we got some new inquiries of existing products for a big pharma customer with whom we are doing fairly good business. That's something we still have to win, but the fact that they are sending us these inquiries itself means that we've established more than just a toehold in these companies. Also, as I said, for one of the customers we onboarded last quarter, they are giving us They registered starting materials and some advanced intermediate inquiries.
Again, some of those numbers have already kicked in, but it's just the beginning. You see, these relationships, they have a timeframe of maturing over three or four years. Just on a quarter basis, it can be just a start and it's like warming up the car. We have miles to go, that will happen in the subsequent quarter and subsequent years. Every time we enroll a customer, these relationships are for years. Yeah. That's been our experience. Every time we bring onboard a new customer, it gives us a lot of hope that this is now going to span over many years of contribution.
Sir, just one last question. I just wanted to understand. A lot of biologic drugs are going off patent. Do we plan to be a drug substance supplier as these products go off patent and to any of the companies which are looking to commercialize it?
We do have some of those, absolutely. This is not our strategy that we look at the products which are going off patent, and we start working on them. Generally, that becomes part of the generics business, though it's a biosimilar generic, but we've stayed away. There are customers who approach us. For ADCs, they need already established mAbs which have gone off patent or something like that. Those projects we work on or something which a client will come to us and say, "We need this biosimilar. Would you develop it for us and manufacture it?" Those interest us a lot. As of now, I'm not saying it's never going to happen. Peptide is another area. These are also large molecules. There we work with customers, and we also have our own strategy there. Generally speaking, we don't follow the patent expiry list.
Understood. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Mehul Sheth from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, first question is around your pipeline in late liquid molecules. As of now, you have something like 100+ kind of active projects, + 10 molecules are in late phase. Can you give some highlight that how many of these projects are into a space of, we can say, GLP or ADC kind of segments? Any near-term visibility in terms of commercialization?
Thanks, Mehul. Yes, right now we have about 100+ programs which are in early stage development and 10 on the late phase side. Path to commercialization will still be some time away, closer to about 18 months-24 months. Last year, our customers have commercialized four new molecules. We hope that some of these 10, which are in the late phase, would get commercial soon, and that will add on to the commercial molecule kitty of ours. In terms of the modalities in which we are working, we have a couple of molecules which are on the ADC side, which are in late phase. Else, peptide molecules are mostly on the early stage side.
Okay. Thank you. One last question. Sir, you already mentioned that there has been some timing related shifting in terms of customer ordering, and that will be placed in the later part of the year. Given Q1 is down almost like a 25% on a year-over-year basis. How do you see the full year as a growth number for the CRDMO as a business segment?
Historically, if you look at our long-term historical growth, we have been delivering numbers consistently, and it's a double-digit growth we have delivered. What we are saying is, for this year also, our growth prospects remain intact. We have our order book full, we will make up for the lost sales, whatever decline you have seen in quarter one numbers in terms of a quarter two upswing as well as a quarter three upswing. You will see the numbers coming back as a recovery in Q2, Q3, and Q4. Our growth prospect for the full year remains intact. It will be in line with our historical growth performance, and our margins also remain mostly intact.
This is the nature of a business where you will see that there will be some element of upswing in some quarters and some downswing in some quarters, because end of the day, the CRDMO business is dependent upon the delivery schedule of customers, and hence there's a lumpiness in terms of the business on the CRDMO business side. Don't worry about quarter-on-quarter deliveries being lower or higher. Business is intact, and we will continue to deliver on our growth numbers for FY 2027 as well.
I also want to sensitize all of you that sometimes this year we'll again have a bumper quarter, please don't make that as the benchmark because then the subsequent quarter may not be able to match up to it. There'll be soft quarters and there'll be some very nice quarters. As Gawir just explained, it depends on when our customers want delivery. Sometimes they all come together. As you saw when we explained our capacities, we have the capacities to deliver. The next quarter, our capacity utilizations are definitely higher, and we just will have this lumpiness in our business. It's the nature of our business.
Keep looking at our business more on a year-on-year front.
Yeah. Holistically, if you look at it's a year-on-year. That's how we have always looked at it. I know we are new to the markets, and markets are used to quarter-to-quarter performance, but this is a different type of business.
Okay. That's helpful. Sir, last question on your Unit IV. Can you provide some current status of where we have reached, how much CapEx we have already incurred into Unit IV, and what are our CapEx outlay for next two years for Unit IV, as well as the timeline of commissioning this Unit IV?
We have articulated this. Roughly about INR 1,200 crores is the CapEx outlay for Unit IV. This is phase I of Unit IV. Unit IV is a large-scale addition for us, roughly about a 30-acre property. Phase I, we'll be using half of the area available for expansion. In phase I itself, we'll be adding about 365 kL of custom synthesis, 100 kL of fermentation. We are also adding a food and a nutra plant over there. This will take about two years' time for us to build. We broke ground last year. By end of this FY 2028, we will be ready with our Unit IV. The INR 1,200 crores, what we are talking about roughly could be a 50/50 split across both this year's FY 2027 and FY 2028. Civil work is almost getting done over there in Unit IV.
We will start putting in orders for equipment to come in now. It will take time. By end of FY 2028 is when we would be ready with our Unit IV expansion.
Okay. Thank you. That's all from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit the questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Bino Pathiparampil from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Just following up on the previous question. What will be the total CapEx for this year, FY 2027?
FY 2027 targeted CapEx for this year will be close to about INR 700 crores.
Okay. It will remain elevated next year also because of Unit IV, then it should come down somewhere. Is my understanding correct?
Sorry, come again, please, on this.
Because of Unit IV CapEx, it will remain elevated next year, FY 2028 as well. After that, the CapEx will come down from those levels. Is my understanding correct?
That's correct.
Okay. Again, following up on the growth. Obviously, there are quarterly fluctuations. For the full year, do you still maintain your targeted growth rate of 20% for this year?
See, our growth is intact. We are not giving a guidance of any particular percentage. Historically, if you look at our last 10 years growth, we have delivered quite a healthy growth rate, and we'll continue to do that in this year as well.
Understood. For the quarter, I see a very low tax rate. For the full year, would the tax rate normalize to around 25%?
It should normalize to about 25%. If you look at last year, our tax rate was high because we had losses in our Unit III subsidiary, Neoanthem. Hopefully, Neoanthem will be something which will turn breakeven this year and may be profitable as well, in the full year basis. We will have a much more marginalized tax rate of about 25%-25.5% for this full year.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bansi Desai from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. My first question is on semaglutide API. If you could share, have we started our commercial supply on this product to domestic players? Secondly, in light of the fact that one of your peer is facing scaling up issues on the API manufacturing front, are we seeing more inbound queries from domestic players who are seeking alternative source?
Thanks, Bansi. Certainly, we have not started supplying. That's something that is still in the works. We are awaiting approvals from CDSCO. We've done all the work. We're ready to scale up as well. We've done enough trials and enough scale-up activities to know that our product, once we have permission, we'll be able to supply people. As we've said earlier, we have sampled almost all the big players, and many of them are waiting for us to have the approval from CDSCO, and then they're ready to go. That's something that is waiting to happen, and it will happen sometime this year for sure. None of this is because somebody else has not been able to scale up. Again, should that opportunity arise, we are ready to service that.
GLP-1 still hasn't come in and hasn't kicked in terms of sales for us, it's something which is in the works and should happen soon.
All right. That's clear. My second question is, Ajay, in the past, when you've guided for growth both on top line and PAT, it appears that clearly we are expecting our margins to maintain at these levels. These are obviously industry high margins. One is, what gives us confidence that we'll be able to maintain these margins? Second is, do we expect these margins to sustain if one had to take slightly longer term view, say, over next three to five years?
What gives us the thing that we'll sustain the margin this year, as we said earlier, our order book is 60% already in the bag. We know what our costs are, we know what our margins are there, I don't see any challenge with margins this year. Going forward, it's very hard to predict the future. At the same time, we've always been driving our business through technology, through innovation, we have some things up our sleeve which will allow us to maintain these margins, we believe, because we use new technologies like flow. We are bringing in biocatalysis, things that normally people are not doing, which are quite revolutionary in cutting down cost of goods. That allows us to, A, engage with the customer at a very different level, because you talk to them a language which they really appreciate, that you're not just a pair of hands.
You're actually contributing to innovation and technology development. The second part is that also, we're allowing our customers to have better cost of goods, at the same time, it helps us retain our margins. Going forward in the next two or three years, let's look at the historical perspective. We've always had very good margins. However, when our new units kick in, yes, there is some depression in the PAT because we have made some large investments. The margins overall, even in this quarter, we have increased our material margin. Even though the top line has not been so great, our material margin has increased. We are in a position to, I believe, defend these margins.
Understood. That's clear. Just one clarificatory question here. Gawir, if you could just help us quantify what is the ESOP cost, and what is it going to be for the full year for fiscal 2027?
The ESOP cost is about INR 9 crores for the full year 2027. Quarter one is about INR 0.25 crores. This was roughly about INR 16 crores for the full year 2026. There is a decline on the ESOP cost.
Okay. Going ahead also, this should be declining, if we have to think about fiscal 2028 and beyond.
Yes. On a like-to-like basis, I think this is the third year when we have taken the ESOP charge. The fourth-year ESOP charge for the ESOPs which have been granted, it will be closer to about INR 5 crores next year. There will be a decline.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vivek Agrawal from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, you mentioned that one of your large biotech customer has been acquired by a big pharma. With this, how you see any kind of change in the demand, especially for the projects that you're working with this biotech customer, any particular outlook would you like to share how this acquisition change the overall outlook of this particular project? Thank you.
Right. There's a constant M&A going on in our customer side. The latest is one of our very nice, decent-sized biotech customer has been acquired by big pharma. However, the impact is not material for the rest of this year. Usually, when an acquisition takes place, they leave the team alone for a year or sometimes even a couple of years to do their thing, and then only slowly there is a ramp-up of volumes. This is something we're waiting to see. We know about the acquisition. We've got an initial letter saying that we've been acquired, but we've had really no meaningful discussions with the acquirer, the big pharma. That is something that actually shapes up over time. Our business actually has very long-term time spans. We have to look at it from that perspective. We have to be patient.
Also it's long-term, but at the same time, it's also very sticky business, given that it's highly regulated. As long as we keep building, getting new products approved, we keep building a pipeline of customers, which every year we add a few more, I think we're in a good place, because that will deliver the numbers four, five, six years from now.
Understood. Just one clarification. Have you worked with this big pharma in the past or the acquirers? How is your experience with this?
They know about us. We met them, but we never had any meaningful business with them till now. That's going to change now because the company that they've acquired, we do decent business with them. It gives us a foot in. We've seen in the past, that's a nice way to get into a company.
Understood. Sir, would you like to-
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Agrawal, may I request you return to the question queue for a follow-up question?
Sure, no problem.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Sir, just extending the previous participant's question. This existing customer contract, was this the manufacturing commercial contract or was this like a scale-up for product approval? If you could share that point.
It's a development contract, which we are working with the emerging biotech, which has been acquired by the big pharma.
Sometimes this is not yet a commercial product, but even a late-stage acquisition. See, again, we don't have visibility on what the clinical out data is, which was in billions of dollars we have seen. This could be it is near commercialization or it is still a few one or two years of work and very promising data. It's not a commercial contract, it's a late phase III development contract.
Got it, sir. Basically, product pipeline, let's say reevaluation and then subsequently to get the commercial contract if this product further progresses on the clinical trial and then commercialization, these are the two key milestones to watch out for, as well as business from this product is concerned.
Oh, absolutely. Not just this for us, this is the key milestone we watch for every company in the past whom we working with biotech that get acquired. Recently another one got acquired, but that's little early stage. All these are, as we said in the past on this call, it just gives us many more shots on goal. We're very hopeful that some of these could translate into large-scale business opportunities. Some would be medium scale. It just also depends on how successful the big pharma is in marketing that product.
Just secondly on this, were we sort of building or already have the capacity for scale-up considering that it was in phase III eventually was to come up for approval? Were we building enough capacity for this product and would that require dedicated one?
See, the phase III quantities which we have supplied has been supplied from our existing Unit I and U nit II itself. Now in terms of capacity addition, yes, we are doing it in our Unit IV. That's whatever room for expansion, room for capacity utilization is there in our Unit I, Unit II, and Unit III. The build-out that we are doing in Unit IV is largely keeping in mind that there will be growth in our existing 14 commercial molecules as well as the one we are, which we have in the late phase are 10 molecules at commercial for additional quantities to supply over there. Our Unit IV expansion is largely catered towards this particular
Got it, sir. Sorry.
No, go ahead. It is fine. Gawir has already answered.
Got it. Just lastly, on any working capital changes that has happened over the last, let us say, quarter or two?
Not significant, Tushar, because, see, if you look at our receivables should have come down because quarter four was a large quarter. There would be a crystallization of receivables. Quarter one was a softer quarter. The receivables, a portion could be proportionate to the quarter one sales. There is a little bit of inventory buildup, which we have because we have purchased raw materials for quarter two and quarter three. Payables should have also gone up a little because of the RM supply that we have tied up for two, three quarters. Overall, I think it is all normal course of business. If you look at Q1 numbers, you will find that we are in line with what Q1 of FY 2026 will be published as FY 2027 balance sheet.
Got it. Not much change in the inventory levels currently?
No.
Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vivek Agrawal from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Thanks again for the question. Gawir , this time around, we have seen that muted trend in other expenses. Is there any kind of one-off or you also talked about discipline, focus on cost efficiency, yield optimization, etc . Something is recurring going forward. Just want to understand how to look at this other expense line in FY 2027 and going forward? Thank you.
I think it's largely in line with the expenses that we have. There's no significant one-off in the other expenses line item. Our focus has always been in terms of how do we optimize on costs. Across the three metrics on the cost side, raw material margin, we have been consistently increasing, and that's largely focused on yield improvement as well as backward integration of most of the raw materials, most of the key intermediates. Our employee cost has been amongst the lowest as a percentage of sales vis-a-vis the industry. Although it might look for this particular quarter, about 18.8%, it might look higher, but that's largely on account of the muted revenue for quarter one 2027. If you look at on an FY 2027 full year basis, we will be largely around that 12%- 13% sort of number as a percentage of sales.
Other expenses will also be in a similar 9% sort of the percentage of sales. The sales this time is lower quarter one and hence it reflects about 9.2%. I think full year number trajectory will be in that 9%-10% range itself. There's no one-off as such on other expenses either.
Thank you. That's from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhawal Khut from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just couple of questions. First one, can we say that quarter one is the lowest quarter for the year and on a quarter-over-quarter basis, we'll see a growth from 2Q onwards? Secondly, on specialty ingredients, it has been a softer quarter as well. When do you think that will again, sort of come back into growth trajectory and what is it going to drive it this year?
Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Dhawal. We clearly see the Q1 as the softest quarter for the year. We expect it to, from here on, only to grow. The second part being that specialty ingredients. Specialty ingredients also, there's been a lot of turmoil in raw materials and because of the war and everything, because this business is more focused in the domestic market. We've had a lot of pressure on supply chain pressures. In the end of the year, this specialty ingredient should also grow. We are very confident. We have visibility now that this, over the last year, there'll be very decent growth in specialty ingredients as well.
Just a small follow-up. On the GLP side, semaglutide, you said you expect CDSCO approval. Beyond that, what are the other markets that we are targeting and maybe if we have started any regulatory work on that molecule?
We've started the regulatory work, but we're not targeting any other markets at the moment. We just need to get the decks cleared for being able to produce this product. Yeah, we've sampled customers overseas. We are talking to them. Everybody is obviously waiting for, are you free to sell in your own country? That's going to be our first gate. That should happen very soon. We expect it in a quarter or two, and that will put us on course for supplying the market. We still see GLP-1 as a long-term, very robust opportunity.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Dhawal.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saion Mukherjee from Nomura Group. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking this follow-up. I just wanted to understand, the whole world is talking about artificial intelligence, being part of the biotech pharma ecosystem, what kind of use cases you are seeing today, and for your business, how you perceive this business is going to be structurally impacted, and what kind of impact it can potentially have on the financials, let's say, if you think about next three, five years?
Yeah. Very good question, Saion. This is something that's an evolving landscape. We do see, and we intend to start using it in specific use cases. See, first, again, it always takes time to separate the hype from reality. A lot of AI talk is, at the moment, hype. When we drill down to, "Okay, show us a use case," then it is very thin. At the same time, some of the very obvious things that we are looking at are document review. When you have a lot of documents to review in quality assurance, which have to be fact-checked and line by line and item by item. That, I think, can be automated and brought under AI. There's also a talk of that AI will use a lot of models, will be able to predict chemistry better.
They will offer better or give us targets which the humans may not be able to foresee or develop. That's a good news for us because if they use AI in deciding targets for specific antigens, those mean there'll be more targets available. Somebody still has to go into the lab. Put chemical A and B or do fermentation to produce the product. If more targets are being discovered or are being potential drug candidates, Anthem will, I believe, tend to benefit. We'll get more work to do this discovery part. That part is yet to be seen. There is also further downstream. We think that we already do a lot of automation in manufacturing. We are going to start looking at use cases there, where we can see better optimization of our resources, better optimization of our facilities.
All those are being looked at, and we will over the next three, four years. Certainly, we are very actively seeking use cases. We don't want to be in a position where we get left out. At the moment, there is still a lot of talk. The use cases. Again, remember, our clients are some of the biggest pharma companies. We're even asking them, "Where is it that you're using this?" Even there, we get rather vague answers and not so far something that we can hang our hat on. It is an evolving scenario, but please be reassured that Anthem will not miss out on this opportunity as the use case develops.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parth Sodha from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible? Hello.
Yes.
First of all, thank you for the opportunity. My question is: how are the four recently commercialized molecules progressing versus our expectations?
We did a decent amount of sales last year in March 2026 for the recently commercialized molecules. With respect to the pipeline for this year, the order book for this year, I think there will be a growth vis-à-vis what we have delivered on March 2026 on these recently commercialized molecules. It needs penetration in the markets where the innovators have launched this molecule, and based on that, our additional supplies will come in. It will take couple of years' time for sizable supplies to come in for these molecules.
Okay. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Udit Bokaria from Catamaran. Please go ahead.
Thanks for giving the follow-up opportunity. Sir, wanted to understand what are the usual reasons why a product which is growing year-over-year, customer goes for deferment of deliveries?
Okay. See, this is a very complex thing. The customers that we cater to service global markets. In some markets, they also anticipate better, higher takeoff, and they stock material there. When that does not happen, they also depend on projection. These are growing molecules, so they will end up stocking in a big geography. Just to take a thing, let's say they expect a lot of sale in China and Germany, and they project certain sales growth in France. When sometimes that doesn't happen, they reroute that to other markets. Well, where they had planned material differently. All this rerouting that happens, then they say, "Okay.
Let's first exhaust this stock that we have built up in these markets. Please supply to us later on because we are seeing the growth there, but it is not as per as we anticipated. This is one of the reasons why there is always a rebalancing and a deferment of supplies. Sometimes, remember, these are growing molecules, so they are adding market after market as approval. They're filed somewhere, and the approval doesn't come on the time that they expected it to. They have to wait for another quarter. The file is in, but approvals have been deferred. Therefore, there is some deferment of supplies. We have confirmed orders, and they will adhere to taking those orders. How they want to redistribute.
Sometimes even in our business, they'll call up and say, "Okay, we are expected to take it to this geography. Don't ship it there, but ship it to another location." This happens all the time. Largely, it doesn't affect the overall business, but it can affect the quarter business, as was the case this time.
This is very helpful. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sajal Kapoor from Antifragile Thinking. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Hi, Ajay. As Anthem has expanded into multiple advanced modalities, what do you believe customers value most when choosing Anthem over other CRDMOs? If you had to rank, let's say two factors, top two, what would those two factors be? It could be backward integration, but I'll let you.
What customers value is what they see in you over a long term. First is, do you keep the promises you make? Secondly, are you just offering them a pair of hands? "Okay, you tell us what to do, we will do it." Or saying, "You're asking us to do this, but we will bring this kind of innovation to it." They do value innovation where you're helping them create a new IP. That's something that Anthem really prides. Third is the ability to be regulatory compliant. Your track record on regulatory compliance is also really important to our customers. On all these three counts, if you score high, you're very likely to be favored by the customer. There are many other subtle factors which I can go on, and we could be here all day, but there is also the quality of your manufacturing.
There's also quality of your people, because what our customers want to do is they don't want to just interact with me or senior management or a project manager. They like to interact with the scientist. They like to interact with the man on the shop floor. If those people know what they're doing, it gives them a lot of confidence. In our case, that happens to be the case. Our training of our people is 360 degrees. They get exposed to all aspects of the company's operation. Therefore, the quality of manpower is another factor that Anthem is really different from its peers.
Love the brutal honesty, Ajay. No sugarcoating, that's the way you have been conducting these calls. I joined many calls, not just CRDMO. This is one call where I have always enjoyed the brutal honesty. If I may ask one more question, I'll just rejoin the queue.
Well, thank you for saying that. Stay invested, if you haven't, please buy Anthem.
We have.
Excellent.
One more question, Ajay. As Anthem continues to broaden its platform, which capability benefits the most from that expansion, conversely, which capability becomes the hardest to preserve as the organization scales, why is that?
The timeframe from what used to be specialty to fine chemicals to genericization, then commoditization has shrunk every year, every decade. What you may consider specialty today will become fine chemicals much faster, fine chemicals will go towards commoditization much faster than before. In that aspect, what is a commodity which holds you in good stead is that you are thinking ahead and saying, "Okay, right now I'm sitting on an asset which is considered very high specialty, tomorrow that won't be." What is it that we can do, A, to keep that moat or make that moat bigger? That is in terms of innovation. Second is, what are the modalities that we need to add? Because this is where the whole industry is growing.
That is where we are very fortunate to have a front-row seat because we work with hundreds of biotechs at any given time. We can see that the new modalities that are emerging or the new things that they're looking at are very different. Very quickly, we bring that skill also in-house. That is, I think, where we try to differentiate from our peers, and that's what I think will keep our nose ahead. As we said, you have to be very cognizant of the fact that the whole scenario is evolving and changing very rapidly. The old way of doing business, the old way of doing things, it has a value, but if you don't keep moving forward and sharpening your tools to a point where you are different from all the others, you could be left behind. That is something that we really take a lot of care.
Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Ajay. Best wishes.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question of the day, and I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everybody. Once again, it was very nice talking to all of you. We will, as we have said before, Anthem endeavors to be totally transparent, be accurate, and continues to be well-governed. This is something that we are very mindful of, and we will continue to do that. Even though this has been a quarter where the top line has been soft, please don't be swayed by that. That's the nature of our business. There will be quarters going forward, which could be very huge. Don't be swayed by that either. That's also the nature of our business. As long as we are trending upward and have growth very sharply defined, which in this case is what I'm assuring you, we will grow as we have grown in the past, even this year. Please keep that in mind.
Our business has to be looked at for the whole year holistically. It's the nature of the beast, which we can't control. I really thank you for your confidence in Anthem, and we will try our level best to honor that confidence and not give you any reason for your confidence to be shaken in Anthem. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Anthem Biosciences Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.