Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Cipla Limited Q1 FY 2026 earnings update conference call. From Cipla's management, we have with us today Mr. Umang Vohra, Global MD and CEO, Mr. Achin Gupta, Global COO, Mr. Ashish Adukia, Global CFO, and Ms. Diksha Maheshwari, Head Investor Relations. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal and operate 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. Diksha Maheshwari, Head Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Maheshwari.
Thank you, Andrew. Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to Cipla's Q1 FY 2026 earnings call. I'm Diksha Maheshwari from the Investor Relations team at Cipla. Let me draw your attention to the fact that on this call, our discussion will include certain forward-looking statements which are predictions, projections, or other estimates about future events. These estimates reflect management's current expectations of the future performance of the company. Please note that these estimates involve several risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied. Cipla does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new confirmations, future events, or otherwise. I hope you have received the investor presentation that we have posted on our website. I would like to request Umang to take over.
Thank you, Diksha. Good afternoon to all of you, and we appreciate you joining us for our quarter one FY 2026 earnings call. As Cipla marks its 90th anniversary, we take a moment to reflect on our journey. What began with a simple yet powerful purpose of caring for life has evolved into a global movement reaching millions through accessible high-quality healthcare. FY 2024-2025 was a defining year marked by record financial performance, deliberate growth across geographies, and a robust innovation pipeline. A one-Cipla approach continues to drive excellence, agility, and collaboration. This quarter, we delivered a steady revenue of INR 6,957 crore with the EBITDA margin of 25.6%. What makes this performance commendable is that it builds on a strong prior year-on-year quarter where we achieved the highest-ever US generic revenue.
This was achieved despite facing price erosion in one of our large products in the U.S., and it reflects our ability to sustain momentum and navigate market dynamics with precision powered by the relentless commitment of our team. Coming to the quarter performance, our One India business delivered a growth of 6% year-on-year for the quarter, breaching the threshold of INR 3,000 crore for the first time ever in any quarter of the financial year, which is 40%, and it's now 44% of our global revenue. In our branded prescription business, we have a higher concentration of respiratory and anti-infective therapies, which is almost 30% higher than the broader market. This queue has naturally impacted our overall growth trajectory given that these therapies saw modest market growth of just 5% each as per IQVIA Max June 2025 for this year.
We remain deeply committed to respiratory, a space where we continue to invest and evolve. This quarter, we launched Voltido Trio, and innovative addition to the differentiated triple therapy offerings complementing products like Cipla G within our Syncope franchise. All future therapies and triple combo products are set to be launched via a new division that we have recently created. This transition was completed in April and May, and we expect to see strong benefits from this strategy in the upcoming season. On a Max basis, we have outperformed the market in several key therapies including respiratory, anti-infective, diabetes, cardiology, urology, dermatology, and pain, reaffirming the strength and breadth of our branded portfolio. Let me also share some key highlights from the market performance this quarter for our branded business.
The chronic segment continues to dominate and now has 61.5% share of our total billing as per IQVIA Max June 2025. Within this landscape, our flagship brand franchisees have delivered a strong uptake. Cipla maintained its leadership as the number one brand in the IPM. We've added five new brands to the INR 100 crore club, taking our total to 29. Our presence in the brands ranking in the top 300 has also expanded, now reaching 23. Cipla leads in six therapies with top five rankings in IPM, underscoring our deep therapeutic expertise and the consistent execution across the portfolio. These achievements reflect our relentless focus on building strong brands, driving scale, and delivering value to patients across India. Our trade generic business continues to deliver strong growth during the quarter on the back of vigorous execution in distribution, new product launches, and technological advancements.
Expanding our portfolio remains a key growth driver with seven new launches this quarter addressing specific patient needs. Our consumer health business continued its strong upward trajectory with Nicotex, Omnigel, and Cipla D securing number one positions in their segments. We are driving healthy secondary growth and actively exploring opportunities to invest in products and channels to expand our distribution network. Operating profitability improved, reflecting the strength and scalability of our consumer health strategy. In North America, as expected, we delivered a quarterly revenue of $226 million. Albuterol ranked number one in the overall U.S. Albuterol MDI market with a 19.5% market share as per IQVIA. With over 50 million inhalers supplied from launch till now, Cipla continues to play a pivotal role in advancing respiratory care across the nation. In the U.S., we are adjusting to the older, larger products substituting themselves due to price erosion.
What is balancing these in is the new launches that are helping us sustain momentum. Lanreotide has already matched last year's average quarterly sales, and we see room for growth ahead. We expanded our portfolio with two key launches, NanoPaclitaxel and Nilotinib, strengthening our presence in complex generics and oncology. We also signed an agreement to launch Cipla's first biosimilar in the U.S., expected in Q2 2026, a key milestone that marks our entry into this high-potential segment. On our U.S. pipeline, we are now closer to commercializing generic Adderall and welcome the promulgation signed by the administration for improving U.S. facilities faster. In parallel, we remain committed to launching two to three peptide assets in this year. We are also preparing for key respiratory launches later in the fiscal year, including generic Symbicort and a couple of more inhalation assets.
Normalized Lanreotide, full year of generic Apraxane, Nilotinib, peptide launches on our respiratory pipeline will cushion our generic regimen's top-line impact and fuel the long-term growth story for the U.S. market. On the supply front, our U.S. business is well diversified with roughly one-third of our U.S. revenue from each coming from our U.S. facilities, India operations, and strategic partners. We have also begun receiving supplies from our U.S. FDA facility in China, further enhancing the scalability and resilience for our North America business. Our China facility now is fully utilized. Our One Africa business recorded a growth of 11% year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms, with South Africa growing 6% in SAR terms. In the private market, we delivered a robust secondary growth of 5.6%, significantly outperforming the market growth of 3.8%.
Growth in One Africa was fueled by significant progress in key therapies, expansion of our tender business, and successful new launches, demonstrating our ability to unlock opportunities and deliver value across diverse markets. In the EMU business, our focus on deep market penetration is laying a solid foundation for sustained growth. This quarter, we delivered a healthy 8% revenue growth in US dollar terms, driven by impressive performance across both the DTM and B2B segments. This is notable since it was achieved despite ongoing geopolitical headwinds. Our ability to maintain margin stability by leveraging internal assets reflects the ability of our operating model. On the regulatory front, the US FDA inspected our Medispray facility located at Goa in the last quarter—sorry, in quarter four of FY 2024. During this quarter, the inspection was classified as a VAI.
During the quarter, the US FDA also inspected our analytical testing facility of Sytech Labs located in Navi Mumbai, and this inspection has also been classified as VAI. I would like to invite Mr. Adukia to present the financial and operating performance.
Thank you, Umang . Now, I'd like to present the key financial highlights for the quarter. While this quarter faced a lower revenue growth in two of our core markets, we continue in the path of strengthening our fundamentals and firmly focused on building long-term strategic gains. We reported a quarterly revenue of INR 6,957 crore, with a growth of 4% YoY. Out of this revenue, for One India, we breached the threshold of INR 3,000 crore for the very first time in the opening quarter of any financial year. The EBITDA margin, excluding the other income, stood at impressive 25.6% for the quarter, which is broadly flat on a YoY basis. Our strong EBITDA performance reflects the strength of our diversified business model and sharp execution.
Notably, we surpassed our internal EBITDA targets by a healthy margin, reinforcing our ability to deliver quality earnings even in a subdued demand environment. Reported gross margin after material cost stood at 68.8%, an increase of 156 basis points YoY, largely attributable to a favorable shift in product mix and strategic portfolio management. Total expenses for the quarter stood at INR 3,009 crore, reflecting an 8% increase over last year. This was primarily due to annual employee increments and increased investment in R&D. We remain committed to innovation and future readiness. Our R&D investments for the quarter were INR 432 crore, accounting for 6.2% of revenue. These investments were directed towards product filing and developmental efforts that will strengthen our pipeline and support long-term growth. The profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 1,298 crore, representing 18.7% of sales.
This marks a solid 10.2% YoY growth with an expansion of 106 basis points. ETR stood at 27%, which was the same as on a YoY basis. Our free cash flow generation and operating efficiency continues to drive healthy net cash position. As on 30th June, debt on our balance sheet included lease liabilities, and the total debt stood at INR 459 crore, with net cash equivalent balance of INR 10,379 crore. Looking ahead, our priorities for FY 2026 will include, for One India, the aim is to focus on execution to regain the growth momentum and outperform the market in both branded prescription and the trade generics. In North America, we'll concentrate on enhancing commercial execution and accelerating the new product introductions. In South Africa, the emphasis remains on expanding the margin.
EMU, the top priority, is to drive top-line growth by deepening penetration in core markets while maintaining strong margin trajectory. For the full year, we continue to maintain our EBITDA margin guidance of 23.5%-24.5%, which is consistent with what we gave in the last quarter. Thank you for your attention. I'll over to the moderator for Q&A.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on a touchstone 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. As a reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Kunal Dhamesha with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. The first one on the US business. Now that we have seen some bit of price erosion in the regulatory and potentially, I think everyone is trying to sell their license quota per year. We know how. Our outlook on the US business growth remains for FY 2026 and FY 2027. And were Apraxane and Nilotinib already launched in Q1, or they were launched in July?
Launched partially in Q1. We've not launched, the Q1 does not reflect the full momentum of the launch. For Nilotinib and NanoPaclitaxel, I think on the other question, yes, Revlimid will be a critical phasing. I think it might phase out the way you had suggested, where there might be, in the first three quarters or so, there might be more Revlimid, and quarter four, it'll bear off. I think that's how generally we think it will play out, although prices have already started correcting in the market.
For aspiration to achieve closer to $1 million sales in the US in FY 2027, we still believe that's possible?
Yeah. That's largely out of our pipeline opportunity. We believe that our pipeline should hopefully get us closer or surpass that, depending on how the, depending on the launch timing.
Sure. This agreement to launch a biosimilar in the US market.
Sorry, just one question.
Sorry. You mentioned a billion dollars this year?
FY 2027.
Yes. Closer to 2027. Yes. Yes. I just wanted to clarify that the comment was for the years after this year, not for this year. Yeah.
Sure. Sure. And that would include billion-dollar would be including Symbicort?
It would billion in a lot of our respiratory launches, including Symbicort. That is correct.
Sure. The second question is if you can provide more details on the imminent launch biosimilar where you have said that we have done a strategic agreement with a partner. Who is the partner? What product is it? Competitive landscape, supply roles, and the economics of the product, if you can provide details.
I believe our partner has made a disclosure, and I think the product name is, it's in supportive therapy. It's not for us. This is just a first launch into the segment of oncology, the segment of supportive care and oncology. It's in, as I mentioned, it's still grassroots, and the partner has disclosed this in their release. It's not a first.
Sure. It's not a first launch by any player. There are many other players in this category of the market.
Understood. If I may squeeze in one more. On the India business, we have seen strong momentum in consumer. If I exclude that consumer business, then we are at roughly 3% launch, and then again, your other trade generic has a strong momentum. It seems branded generic has been muted, and within Vespi, you have highlighted, but within Vespi, shouldn't our portfolio be more chronic with the inhalers, etc., and hence the volatility should be less for us versus the IP and SP therapy?
Yeah. Ideally, for us. Firstly, I think on a fuller basis, we think that respiratory and the overall growth story will be very strong. I think we have very strong conviction on that. I think in this quarter, two things happened. The impact of the seasons being a little different, the fact that there were rains in the summer, the respiratory season, etc., did not really take off as much, and that impacts how the trade stocks your product. If you are the largest player in that category, I think it begins to impact you. That is what happened to us. As I mentioned, in IQVIA, we saw respiratory and acute growing around 4%-5%. That is pretty much reflected in our numbers. The other thing is we also strategically aligned our team to further our growth of our triples combination.
Now we have several triple launches coming in as well, which should also unleash the growth for us in the market. It is a slower quarter for us, but from a fuller perspective, based on the realignment that we have done of these new divisions we have set up for the teams, as well as the fact that the season has recovered, we are very confident of this year being strong.
Thank you. Mr. Dhamesha, please reserve the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Tushar Manudhane with Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead. Mr. Manudhane, please go ahead with the question.
Am I audible? No, you're not audible. Can you come a little closer to the mic and speak?
Is this better?
Yes. Yeah. Yes.
Just on respiratory again, at the industry level itself, the last 12 to 15 months or the past two years, the growth has been a bit slow. If you could throw some on that aspect.
Yeah. I think let me put it this way. We are coming off a fairly significant respiratory quantum in the industry. There were some adjustments to price that were made on some of the large inhalers in the last 12 to 15 months by government notifications and by DPCO certifications, etc. That has impacted some of our brands as they adjusted to the lower pricing. The other thing is that volume growth is there, but also it's coming from categories where now we've repositioned to get more program growth. The growth is slightly slower in the industry. It may be a phenomenon of perhaps a year or a year and a half, but I think we are quite bullish about this going forward.
Just on US sales, given that we had good launches as well, maybe specifically for FY 2026, if I may ask, would we be able to maintain this normalized annualized run rate of $226 million for FY 2026?
Actually, it's a little indeterminate. It depends on when Revlimid, the impact of Revlimid, and how it comes off. If we could see a larger impact of Revlimid in quarter three, we could see it in quarter four or in quarter two, right? We don't know that, and it's very difficult to give a guidance range, but we are sticking to what we said at the beginning of the year for an overall US trajectory and growth. I think what's more important for the market, which we realized the last quarter, was to give a range of guidance on our profitability, which we've given. I think the timing during the year will be difficult to predict, but on a fuller basis, we believe that our margin should come into the range that we have set.
Thank you. Mr. Manudhane, please reserve the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Damayanti Kerai with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on your respiratory launches planned in the US. Starting with Advair, will it likely be a one-edge launch or will it go to two-edge? For the remaining launches, Symbicort and other inhalation products, I remember a few quarters back you mentioned that for critical filings, launches, etc., you will go for dual filing. Have you done dual filing for these products for risk management?
Yes. We have done double filings for most of our products from a risk management perspective on the respiratory side. Yes, generic Adcock Ingram, it will obviously, the way we're looking at it, maybe an H2. H2 launch in this year.
Okay. Likely be a second-half launch. Fine. My second question is on ladder types. So I guess we have seen good pickup. When do you see it going back to the level where you have come up? How do you see market share gain from there on? Do you think there is sufficient visibility for you to gain more market share here?
It's a two-player market right now, right? It's a two-player market. We had this problem with our manufacturing. Before we had that issue, we were at 30%-35% of the market. I think we've evaluated the market on fair share from a value perspective. We intend to, over a period of time and not immediately, reach to a more respectable share of the overall market.
Okay. Just to relate it query , now you have both 505(b)(2) as well as the generic version. So where do you see more room to gain the market share?
The generic always has the maximum room because it's a completely substitutable product. I think it depends on the production mix between the two and your ability to supply it to the marketplace. Generic always has, in any product category, generics will always have the ability to gain more market share.
Sure. Thanks for your response. I'll get back in the queue.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Surya Narayan Patra with Philip Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for this opportunity, sir. First question is on the Albuterol MDI in the US. We have seen this quarter there is a kind of meaningful ramp-up. Is there any reason that we are seeing a kind of meaningful ramp-up because of the competition factor, or it is some aggression from our side that is helping us achieving this sequential ramp-up? Could you please give some sense about it, sir?
Sure. We've been on the path of this recovery for almost now, I think, about 12, 13 months or so. Our share had dropped about a year back, and then after that, we have consistently gained the market share. Yeah, it's just maximizing the supplies that we have.
Okay. Second question is about our GLP plan. Let's say competitors have indicated their plan. If you could share what is our strength about this product opportunity and what is our plan? Are we kind of trying to play on the strength of the cost position, or is it the distribution strength, or is it a market reach? If you can provide some idea and what are the kind of TAM that we are targeting through this product opportunity, if you can share some of your thought process about it.
I think I just start by saying that for us, the entire GLP-1 category is more important than just looking at individual products within that, right? I think the category will shape up in a manner depending on several pipeline assets. Our own endeavor is to be among the first wave of launchers, both for the GLP-1 drug. Right now, the earliest opportunity to launch GLP-1 drug is presented by semaglutide, right? It depends on how this market begins to, how this market is created between semaglutide and GLP-1 of the innovator brand, as well as the GLP-1 of the second innovator company. We think this market is going to be very attractive, and it will be a large market, and Cipla will have a very definitive play here.
We are not providing commentary because most players may have mentioned to you that they've integrated the full chain of the GLP-1 opportunity. Of semaglutide and the value chain there, our belief is that if it's going to be a huge opportunity, I think the value chains perhaps may need to be shared as against this one person investing in it. At the same time, we have parts of the chain that we have internalized, and we have parts of the chain that come from a partner. We are playing a mix and hybrid strategy. At places we are filing, at places we have our own product, as well as we've also got a product from partner's value chain as well.
We're trying to maximize the opportunity in total between trying to manage our own supply chain, partner supply chain, supply chains of others, as well as even taking a hard look at GLP-1 as a category as against just a single product that would launch in the near future.
Sure. Will it be a kind of significant driver of growth for domestic business in FY 2027 itself?
Sorry, could you repeat your question? We lost you for a minute.
This will be a kind of a significant growth driver for domestic business in FY 2027 itself?
Yes, hopefully. I mean, if the market forms early next year, it will be a significant growth driver for the business.
Yeah. Sure, sir.
We've seen that in other markets as well. Similar markets where we've seen a GLP launch has been done. It has reshaped the market.
Will we be then the first wave of Canadian launch and Brazilian launch?
Yeah. I think we will not provide that level of color. Just to say that the Canada opportunity for some of our competitors is real. I think it is out in the public domain, and we are not in the first wave launchers in Canada, that we are sure about. Some of the other markets, we will be among the first set of launches.
Sure, sir. Yeah. Thank you. Wish you all the best.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Neha Manpuria with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. First question on the India growth. Among those, if I remember correctly, last year we had the low base from the pre-generic restructuring. While I understand that the industry growth has been slow this year and the repeat realignment that we have done, should not the India growth have been a little better than the industry given the low base in the pre-generic segment? And this repeat realignment that we have done, is that likely to impact our growth for a couple of quarters, or is it just restricted to this quarter that we saw its main impact?
Yeah. Neha, I wish I could have said when you said shouldn't the growth have been, I wish I could have said no, but actually, yes. The growth should have been higher. I think when we isolate the problem, as we mentioned, we are strong on the GX. We are strong on the CHL. On the prescription business, yes, largely because respiratory and acute is almost 59%-58% of the total mix. Unfortunately, this quarter, they have both grown at 4%-5% level. That impact has come into our numbers because that is the percentage of our business in it. It has been a little different this year because of the seasonal impact. It may have got a little bit exacerbated because we were also restructuring and realigning teams. When you put new teams, you also take people from other teams to position these together.
Where we are today, seasonal triggers have kicked in. We are seeing the impact in our growth now. We are seeing the ability of the triple steam. We have already got a very strong share in Voltido Trio and hoping to replicate that with the other three launches that are hopefully coming there and launching through the team. I think overall, we are confident. If your question is, should the quarter not have been higher in India growth? For sure. Absolutely. I think it was a slower quarter than what we thought it would be.
For the full year, we think we can grow in line with the industry now. It still depends. I mean, I understand it depends on the seasonality, but do we have confidence based on what we are seeing right now to grow that Cipla's India business can grow in line with the industry?
Yes. Yes. At least for the next three quarters, we think that we can grow in line with the industry, for sure.
Okay. Understood. My second question is on the margins. Actually, I think if I look at this quarter's margin and the pipeline that we have mentioned in the U.S., shouldn't the margins be higher? I understand that Revlimid will go away, but given that Adway that we get launched, we already have a vaccine in this environment, probably even simply content. Shouldn't that margin be a little higher than the range guidance things that we've given last quarter?
No. In here, I would stay with the. And some of the other expenses targeting that we did. This is despite keeping in mind that our R&D expenses were also higher this quarter because of certain R&D APIs, etc., that we procured for developmental efforts. We had also expected that in line with Revlimid, the first two quarters, one, two, three, whatever, that one set about the phasing, those quarters would be higher than the value for three years.
Understood. If I were to look at margins for next year, given the U.S. pipeline and if we get to that billion-dollar U.S. sales number, is the lower end of the guidance achievable? I mean, can we keep margins at 23.5% in fiscal 2027 as well?
We are a little early for us to give guidance for next year. Closer to the year-end, when we're in position to give that guidance, seeing how the market shapes up after that is when we'll be in better position to do that.
Understood. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Bino Pathip arampil with Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Just following up from a couple of previous questions. Among Revlimid, has it changed the QoQ over the last three quarters, say Q3, Q4, Q1? Or is it broadly similar?
Is your question, what is the value of Revlimid in this quarter versus the last one?
Yeah. Correct.
Yeah. That's more or less the same.
Okay. From your statement that the new launches in the U.S. will compensate for the loss of generic Revlimid, should we read that this year's total U.S. will be more or less similar to last year's total U.S., despite Revlimid being there only for part of the year?
No. Bino, I think. See, your launches will come at different timelines. Okay? So it's difficult to say in terms of timelines. We have plans for all our launches that are coming in will make up for the revenue loss that you have for Revlimid. That will happen in a short to medium term.
Understood. So FY 2027, that $1 billion number is the number to go by, more or less. One last question, if I may. Just come in. You must have seen one of the Indian players has taken a significant stake in Adcock Ingram in South Africa. Does this change the market in any way or the competitive dynamics for you in any way?
I would think that Adcock, from what we understand, already had a significant relationship with NASCO. I'm not sure that the competitive dynamics will change significantly. Also, Adcock has a large share of the OTC portfolio as much as it does on the branded side. Maybe, yeah, I mean, in the sense that if they get more pipelines from NASCO, then yes, competitive dynamics would change. Otherwise, the existing relationship also has significant support to the Adcock engine from NASCO.
Okay. Thank you. Well done. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Maitri Sheth with Choice Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning.
Yes, Maitri .
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Just a few questions. Once again, I'll withdraw. Given that we have a 19.5% market share, what is the kind of revenue outlook that we can expect from this drug? How much is it contributing to our North America revenue currently?
No. We do not give out molecule-wise data. It is one of our strategic respiratory assets in the US, and we would like to maintain the market share out here. If capacity allows us, then we will obviously grow that as well.
Maitri , you can hear us, right?
We have lost the line of Maitri . We'll take the next participant. That is Ankush Mahajan with Sanctum Health. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. For the next quarter, we are going to launch one biosimilar in the U.S. market. What is the strategy for other biosimilars to launch in the U.S. market? Would it go somewhere like?
I think. Maybe I can answer the question in this manner, that we will probably in-license a few assets through partnerships in the near term, and maybe launch our own biosimilar assets somewhere towards the 2029, 2030 time period.
In terms of the licensed biosimilars, what are the other, what is the timing line for project licensed biosimilars? We are launching two or three or something like that?
No, no. What we are saying is right now we are launching one. That is through partnership. We will have a few partnerships through which we will launch in the near term. In the longer term, it will be our own assets.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tushar Manudhane with Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity again, sir. Just on this biosimilar again, this is not an interchangeable drug as such. It would be like we'll have to create prescriptions. What gives us sort of right to win on this product? In fact, just to their participant question, like the in-licensing product, how does it help for supply and overall scheme of things? One more similar, how much overall investments are we are making for biosimilar as a school?
I think on the, let me answer the first one. The way it would help us is the right to win is our oncology presence and our team presence in the US. We have been selling into the institution channel. We sell Lanreotide, which is a very large business for us, and we sell two variants of it, the ANDA and the 505(b)(2). We have several other products that we sell. It is essentially the same channel in which the biosimilar goes. As we begin to unfold our plan for biosimilars, I think the first asset always is an asset that gives you the ability to begin to create a portfolio as well as understand and grow the market. That is what we are trying to do with the first asset. We have committed to a joint venture almost.
The joint venture has had a plan where we had committed almost upwards of $100 million to the joint venture for the development towards our share of the development of the biosimilars. We are holding with that, and we might actually even increase our outlay in the next couple of years towards it. We are actively building a biosimilar pipeline in the long- term. In the short- term, we are launching biosimilars in partnership with others. That is our overall strategy for biosimilars.
Got it, sir. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Sidharth Negandhi with Chanakya Wealth Creation. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Just following up on the questions on trade generics, just wanted to understand. Given what you mentioned about a possible sort of impact on the branded generics, what would be the quantum of growth in the trade generics business? How do you see this going forward in context of the overall IPM growth?
Yeah. Maybe there are just two or three things that you should keep in mind before I try and answer that question. Last year, the base of the trade generics business was quite significantly lower because of the fact that we had reacquired the distribution operation from our partner. Therefore, a superior growth rate that we are seeing at this time is also a function of the base of that, the base of the previous quarter, plus the ability to get back to significant growth by our trade generics business in this year. Going forward, we think that the trade generics business will grow at IPM or about IPM. I don't see any reason why it should be different than the prevalent growth in the IPM at all. If the range you're asking for, it could be between 8%-10%.
Okay. Because from just a follow-up on that, we've been seeing trade generics grow faster than IPM in the past. Do we believe that, given the additional competition that's coming into trade generics, our trade generics business is likely to grow at that rate? Or do you see overall trade generics as a space growing at that pace?
I think when you look at the IPM, just as a fact. I think a large share of the IPM volumes are actually from. Overall, IPM is from products which are more acute and are distributed inside the country. We believe that trade generics will continue to grow at the same rate as the IPM. Now, obviously, trade generics do not sell as many of the chronic therapies as you've seen on the branded side. We think that the trade generics will grow at the same rate. We are not, while competition is great, it expands the market for trade generics. We have some very large brands within the trade generics segment. I think we are quite hopeful of this segment as well going forward.
Got it. My second question was on GLP-1s and semaglutide. Given the relative competitive strength for Cipla is in other therapies, right, and diabetics sort of is a much smaller percentage of sales as per IQVIA. How do you believe there is a path in terms of creating a superior right to win in this? Do you see any differentiation possible for you to create a superior market share for yourself in that GLP-1 space?
Yeah. I think it's a good question. I think we do think that the GLP-1 market will be crowded. I think the way you make portfolio choices here will perhaps be the most important. Right now, the way we are thinking of this market and the reach that we are trying to assign with it, I think we are looking at GLP-1, as I said, as a full category as against just sema or just the other variants within it. I think that's how we plan to play this market.
Got it. That's useful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Shashank Krishnakumar with Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is, again, on the domestic piece, particularly the trade generics business. This quarter, on the relatively lower 1Q base last year, would it have grown at low single digits or was growth a bit higher than that? I just wanted to check that.
Yeah. Ashish, do you want to comment?
I think what Umang has already explained, there was a lower base last year, and on that, there was a significant growth which was delivered this year. The seasonality which we saw on the anti-infective side also affects the trade generic side. Typically, Q1 is not as strong a quarter for this business. I think going forward, we will see it growing in line with the market. Hopefully beat the market as well.
Perfect. My second question was on the Indore facility. Now, given that it's been slightly more than two years now, is that facility up for a reinspection this year? How prepared are we in case we face a reinspection sometime this year?
Yeah. I think you're right. We do expect a reinspection. General timelines are within the two-year period. We are expecting a reinspection from now, anytime from now all the way till. We were inspected in February, I think. Anytime from now till February, yes. We are prepared for the inspection, and we're looking forward to it.
Thank you. That's excellent. Wonderful.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Kunal Dhamesha with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity again. A couple of logistic questions. One on the INR 120 crore other income. Could you share how much of that is PLI? And then what would be the sustainable PLI contribution that we can factor in for the coming quarter and maybe coming year?
On other income. First of all, it is below EBITDA. I just want to clarify that. That has treasury income sitting there mainly, and that also has exchange gains that will be sitting there. These are the two big elements. There will be a few others as well, smaller items. That is on the other income. You had one more question which I missed. I'm sorry. Can you please repeat that?
I don't think I framed it. I think I referred to other operating revenue of.
Okay. Other operating income has mainly your PLI sitting out there, okay? And export incentives and small bit of craft sales, etc. PLI is a material component as part of other operating income.
How should we think about this here? Because it is linked to the growth in export revenue, right? With revenue coming down.
Yeah. You're absolutely right. It is linked to the complex portfolio that you sell in India or outside of India. Of course, there is also a cap of how much benefit you can get from the government. It's outside the scheme. It was there last year as well. Yeah.
Sure. The other expenses, which have come down by almost around INR 800 million, excluding R&D, on a sequential basis. Is there any, was there any one-off in Q4? Or is this a run rate that we should take going forward, what we have seen in Q1?
Run rate should continue if that's the question. Of course, in Q4, there may have been some one-off. That gets eliminated. More or less, every quarter will have some one-off, etc. Overall, this run rate should continue. Hopefully, after Indore, what will happen is your remediation costs should come down. That is one trend. That should be noticeable.
Sure. The last one on the India business. It's good to see that we have added five brands in the INR 100 crore plus category in the last one year on a year-on-year basis in this quarter. My question is, how much time on average does it take to reach INR 100 crore kind of scale for a particular brand in India now?
It depends on the category that you're talking about, the therapy area, and our strength in the space. Some of the new launches that we've done recently have been quite successful. Like Voltido Trio has started very strong. We launched empagliflozin brands in March when the LOE happened. We're already up to fourth rank in that. It depends. Typically, for a new brand, it takes a while to reach INR 1 billion. If you see all of the INR 1 billion brands we have, we have amongst the maximum number of them in the market.
Sure. Sure. Is it also fair to say that while GLP-1 could be a very big category for the India market itself, given the competitive landscape and given that there is no readily available market which is already formed, the ramp-up or the kind of trend that we can see would take some time to reach higher levels? Is that a fair assessment?
This is a very unique space where if you see the last three months of reported IQVIA data, already the innovator brand has clocked around INR 50 crore-plus. This is one of the fastest ramp-ups that has been seen in India, and a similar trajectory has been seen in other parts of the world. Given the disruptive nature of this category and not too many older products which address the same unmet medical need, one would expect this ramp-up to be much faster.
Sure. Great. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Saion Mukherjee with Nomura Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks and good afternoon. Umang, I mean, the initial market share that you're seeing for the new launches, paclitaxel and nilotinib, if you can share how should we think about how big these two products are likely to be for Cipla in fiscal 2026?
Saion? NanoPaclitaxel is already the two, three players in the market already. I think one or two of them are basically selling the same innovator product, and the other two are 505. One is the Lambda and one is the 505(b)(2). If you take the total market, I think price is not the same as the innovator price at this point in time. I can't give you a ballpark sort of an estimate. I can tell you that the market is big enough to accommodate perhaps more vials than what we can produce.
Okay. Umang, on nilotinib, how should we think given 505(b)(2) and limited competition at this point?
Yeah. I think on Nilotinib, perhaps the market opportunity may be more limited, Saion, because B2B will have a lot of relevance when there are not too many ANDA players. Once you have more ANDA players coming in, then the B2B opportunity goes down a little bit. I think maybe if you model it out to say that others launch six months later, the B2B opportunity will probably maximize itself in the first six months, relatively more than what it will do after.
Right. Understood. My second question, Umang, also on the biosimilars front. You mentioned about Feldgrafim, licensing, and a couple more. Through the JV, you are committed to invest $100 million. You also mentioned about your own product coming to the market sometime in 2029-2030 timeframe. I'm just wondering, how are you thinking about the space? What are the key milestones that we should look at for Cipla over the next, say, two-three years as far as biosimilars are concerned?
Saion? Let me put it this way. Let's talk about the enabling areas in the business, right? I think when we first set up our decision to get into biosimilars three years back, most biosimilars had very extensive phase three requirements from the US, right? I think that is beginning to change. When that changes, two or three things happen. You can expand your pipeline faster because now you don't have to pencil in two years of phase three studies or one year of phase three studies, right? That happens. Second, you don't need to spend the same amount of money for one product, and therefore you can increase your engine a bit.
The way we are looking at this now is that in some way, a biosimilar engine for a company like us will begin to mimic an investment return ratio a little bit more than a complex generics product, but not too far from it. You could be spending $15 million, $20 million, $25 million, depending on the product, minus phase three, which is pretty much what will be ballpark roughly what you would spend on a complex generics product if the phase three requirement gets waived. The second big trend is interchangeability, because of which market access becomes easier. I think what this will cumulatively do, Saion, as a conjecture is that if you have more number of people coming in the market, the relative share that innovators keep holding on to of the biosimilar universe becomes significantly lesser.
There is more room for generics to grow because retaining reduces significantly. I think that's the overall trend we're looking at. We don't have any product out of our own engine, Saion, which will come out before 2029, 2030, because that was by design. We will deploy capital towards in-licensing, but by and large, our pipeline will only start coming in 2029, 2030.
Umang, just clarification of $100 million that you're committed and maybe it will be a little more. This will be invested over what timeframe?
In the next three years. Out of that, Saion, we've already spent. I'd like to believe maybe 20-30% of that. This was three years back we had committed cumulatively with our partner about $180 million or so. The partner share was 40%, ours was 60%. That assumed at that point in time that phase threes would be very expensive. Now that requirement has changed, so we can put more assets into the pipe. Saion is part of our R&D budget, so it comes as that. It's coming into our in that. It's in our numbers.
I see. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the last question. That's from the line of Krishnendu Saha with Quantum. Please go ahead.
Yeah. It was just corrected that there was some lack of capacity in the Albuterol. So because of that, we could not take a larger market share. I must, I could have misread it or misunderstood.
Yeah. No, Krishnendu, let me clarify. What I meant was that we are maximizing our capacity out there and able to supply all of it. Of course, we have been able to sustain for ourselves. If we have built more capacity, we can increase out there. From a market share point of view, at 19.5%, maybe some more improvement, but that's where we can go to with the current capacity.
I see. So will you be putting out capacity or you're okay with it just in the partners put together?
This is our own capacity. We supply from India out here. Of course, we have capacity in Palderwood as well.
This is the capacity we'll keep to, right? That's in the future also.
Absolutely. Yeah. It's our own product.
Okay. Thanks. Just for reference. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Diksha Maheshwari for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, everyone, for joining in. If you have any other questions, please write it to investor.relations@cipla.com.
Thank you. On behalf of Cipla Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.