Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY26 earnings conference call of Concord Biotech Ltd., hosted by Centrum Broking. Please kindly note that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company, and it may involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star ten on your Ashton phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to Mr. Sumit Gupta from Centrum Broking.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Hi, thank you. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Centrum Broking, I welcome you all to the Q1 FY26 earnings conference call of Concord Biotech Ltd. Today, from the company, we have with us Mr. Sudhir Vaid, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Ankur Vaid, Joint MD and CEO, Mr. Lalit Sethi, CFO, and Mr. Prakash Sajnani, AVP Accounts and Finance. I would now like to invite Mr. Sudhir Vaid, Chairman and MD for Concord Biotech, to give his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our Q1 FY2026 earnings conference call. We reported a stable performance this quarter, with revenues at INR 204 crore, impacted mainly by revenue lumpiness. The preceding quarter had exceptionally high sales, and historically, such strong quarters are followed by relatively softer ones. While this pattern persists, we remain confident on achieving our long-term goals. On the EBITDA front, the decline was primarily on account of commercialization costs of our new injectable facility in Valthera, which affected EBITDA and margins. We have a robust pipeline of products and have started taking validation batches of these products. Excluding the injectable facility cost, the EBITDA margins stood in line with the same quarter last year. Overall, Q1 FY2026 reflects the successful execution of several key strategic initiatives.
Notably, we received approval from the US FDA to market teriflunomide tablets, 7 mg and 14 mg, for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis in the United States. This is an important addition to our portfolio and underscores our commitment to bringing high-quality therapies to global markets. Over the past few months, our facilities have successfully cleared inspections by the US FDA, EU GMP, and Russian GMP authorities, reaffirming the strength of our quality and stringent manufacturing standards. These approvals position us to ensure uninterrupted supply to global markets without regulatory hurdles. We have further strengthened our presence in the U.S. through the incorporation of Stellon Biotech, Inc., which will focus on the marketing, distribution, and commercialization of Concord Biotech's pharmaceutical and biotech products in the U.S . market.
Stellon will manage end-to-end commercial operations, and it may also collaborate with third-party partners for marketing their products in the U.S. This will not only establish a direct commercial footprint in the U.S. but also supports our broader objective of expanding market access and unlocking greater value from our product pipeline across key global markets. Additionally, we incorporated Concord LifeGen Ltd., as a wholly owned subsidiary, to further strengthen our domestic marketing, sales, and distribution capabilities for pharmaceutical products. This move will allow us to establish a sharper market focus, enhance customer engagement, and create a stronger brand presence in India. Last quarter, in March 25, we successfully commercialized operations at our new injectable facility situated at Valthera. This advanced plant has been meticulously designed and constructed in line with stringent international standards. It reinforces our commitment to delivering high-quality products consistently and further strengthens our manufacturing capabilities.
Moving ahead, we will continue to pursue strategic investments as opportunities arise. While advancing our product pipeline and seamlessly driving our R&D initiatives, we remain focused on expanding our API formulation and CDMO business, delivering high-quality products, maintaining global standards, and securing regulatory approvals. These efforts position us as well to capture growth opportunities effectively. We are confident that we are poised to accelerate our business growth. Thank you. With this, I hand over the call to Mr. Ankur Vaid, Joint Managing Director and CEO of Concord Biotech Ltd. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We reported a moderate quarter with revenues down 5% to INR 204 crore. I would like to highlight that our business is best evaluated on a long-term or at least on an annualized basis rather than quarter-on-quarter. The lumpiness can stem from changes in customer procurement patterns or sales spillover into subsequent months due to approval timelines. This quarter was one such example of that lumpiness. However, our long-term growth strategy story remains intact. Notably, our EBITDA and PAT registered a decline primarily due to the commencement of our injectable facilities at Valdera. These initial costs are expected to weigh on EBITDA margins until revenue from the facility scales up gradually through FY2026. However, excluding these startup costs, our EBITDA margins stood at approximately 37% in line with the same quarter last year.
Moving on to the segmental performance, in Q1 FY2026, our API revenues stood at INR 153 crore, reflecting a 10% year-on-year decline. As I mentioned earlier, customer procurement patterns can be uneven, and this often leads to quarterly fluctuations. A full-year view provides a far more accurate picture of the underlying performance of our API business. On the formulation side, revenue grew 12% year-on-year, reflecting healthy traction in the segment. During the quarter, we commenced operations at our injectable facility in Valdera. We expect this segment to start contributing to the revenues in FY2026 with a full ramp-up anticipated over FY2027 and FY2028. On the regulatory front, we continue to enhance our compliance and preparedness across all facilities. We are pleased to report the successful completion of multiple key inspections at our API manufacturing facility in Dholka, Gujarat.
During the period, our API facility in Dholka underwent an inspection by the US FDA, and we are pleased to report that we have received the EIR report from the US FDA for this inspection, further affirming our ongoing commitment to regulatory compliance and operational excellence. This facility was also successfully inspected by EU GMP, conducted from July 14- July 18, 2025. Additionally, this facility passed the Russian GMP inspection held from July 22- July 25, 2025. These achievements underscore our commitment of upholding the highest standards of quality, safety, and regulatory compliance across all aspects of our operation. It reflects our dedication to excellence and our continued focus on meeting the rigorous requirements of global regulatory authorities. Moving forward, our global expansion efforts continue to gain momentum.
We have now filed over 138 DMFs and secured approvals for ANDAs across key international markets, further enhancing our product reach and customer base. From a strategic standpoint, the incorporation of Stellon Biotech and Concord LifeGen will provide growth opportunities in the U.S. and India and further strengthen our position in these markets. We continue to focus on manufacturing niche and complex products with limited competition. Currently, we have a portfolio of 30+ products with several more under development. Our strategy is to leverage our technical expertise to swiftly capture market opportunities and increase our market share. Concord remains one of the few companies globally producing more than 30 fermentation APIs across multiple therapeutic areas, including immunosuppressants, oncology, anti-infectives, and antibacterial agents. Supported by a robust R&D engine, we are consistently expanding our molecule portfolio to strengthen our long-term growth trajectory.
In Q2 FY2026, we marked a significant milestone in our diversification strategy by initiating sales to our CDMO business to the U.S. market. We view the CDMO segment as a high-growth opportunity for Concord Biotech, driven by increasing global demand for dependable, high-quality manufacturing partners. Our teams are actively collaborating with more innovators and largely generic pharmaceutical companies on projects ranging from early-stage development to commercial-scale supply. Encouragingly, we are receiving and responding to a growing number of RFQs, and we remain optimistic about the future prospects of this vertical. We currently have one commercialized CDMO project and have started our sales to them in Q2 FY2026. We are also currently in advanced discussions with several potential clients to expand our CDMO engagement.
Backed by our proven technical capabilities, strong compliance track record, and expertise in handling niche and complex products, we are well-positioned to secure a meaningful share in this growing market. Over the medium term, we expect the CDMO business to become a significant contributor to our overall growth and to further strengthen our relationships with leading global pharmaceutical companies. With this, I hand over the call to Lalit Sethi, our Chief Financial Officer for Financial and Operational Performance. Thank you.
Thank you, sir, and good evening, everyone. Let me take you through the financial and operational performance for the quarter. On the revenue front, our revenue for Q1 FY2026 stood at INR 204 crores as compared to INR 216 crores in the same period last year, 5% lesser in this quarter. Revenue from the API business stood at INR 153.8 crores against INR 171.1 crores in Q1 of the last year, down by 10%. Revenue from the formulation business has grown by 12% in this quarter from INR 44.8 crores to INR 50.2 crores. Revenue from the domestic and export businesses are lesser by 5% in Q1 of this financial year as compared to the same period last year. Speaking on EBITDA, EBITDA for this quarter stood at INR 61 crores as compared to the 81 crores in the Q1 of the last year.
EBITDA margins for this quarter stood at 30.1% against 37.7% in the same period last year. As mentioned, the costs related to the commercialization of our new injectable facility have temporarily impacted EBITDA. However, as revenue from the facility scales up, we expect to benefit from operating leverage, which will enhance overall EBITDA and margins. Excluding this, our EBITDA for the quarter stood at approximately 37%, consistent with Q1 of the last year. On the profit after tax, our profit after tax for this quarter stood at INR 44 crores as compared to the 60 crores in the same period last year. Our cash margins for this quarter stood at 21.6%. I shall now leave the floor open for question- and- answer.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press the "ask" and "when" on the dashboard telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press the "r" and "to." Participants are requested to use headsets 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 Yagnam Pathak from AM Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Does cost impact your churn related to the Valthera facility? It's a back-tracking that is around INR 14 crore. Is it a close-by figure? If you can please quantify how much of it would be personal cost?
Yeah, around INR 12 crore-INR 13 crore is the expense that is related to the injectable facility.
Okay. Anyone else?
Out of it, INR 4.27 crore is on account of the employment cost. Power and furniture is around INR 2.77 crore, and remaining is the other expenses.
All right.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press "star" and "one" to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Maitri Sheth from Choice Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have a couple of questions. One is on the export revenues. I just wanted to understand how much of it is coming from the U.S. Given that we are still in line to achieve our EBITDA margin guidance, could you just throw some color on by which quarter can we expect these increased expenses to normalize? That's all.
As far as the bifurcation of exports revenue, it's around 45% of the total revenue is exports and 55% is the domestic. Out of the export revenues, around 17% is to the U.S. and 33% is to the rest of the world.
Okay. That's excellent. Thank you so much. Secondly, on the EBITDA, if you could just give us an idea.
EBITDA, as I mentioned it to you, this time it is impacted because of the commercialization of the injectable plants. In case excluding this commercialization with the startup cost, it will be in line with what it was in the same period last year. It was 37% last year. This year also stood at 37%.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press "star" and "one" to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Vivek Agrawal from Citig roup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the question. As far as the dip in this quarter in API business is concerned, is it mainly driven by quarterly fluctuation in procurement, or is there any impact of pricing headwinds as well? Multiple companies, especially in the API space, are reporting some kind of headwinds as far as generic pricing is concerned. Thank you.
This is primarily an account, as mentioned earlier, Vivek says, on account of the lumpiness in the business that we have seen because of the heavy Q4. Again, you know, we are anticipating that the customers would be having some bit of inventory in their hands because of which, you know, they've seen that lumpiness in Q1. That is the reason because of which we have seen this.
Thanks. How is the pickup that is happening in the new Limbasi facility, especially in the oncology and the anti-infective segments, if you can throw some light?
Oncology is only being catered to unit one. We do not have oncology at the Limbasi facility, but the Limbasi facility is picking up quite well because most of the new products will be getting validated and commercialized from the new site only. Last year, we did Nystatin. That was manufactured at unit three only. We have a couple more products that we are looking at commercializing in this year, and those would also be coming from unit three only. As we start building more molecules, as more molecules become commercial, that will further help us kind of optimally utilize this Limbasi facility.
Thanks. If you can throw some more light on the CDMO contract as well as the commercial supplies that you bring in this particular quarter, that would be helpful. How much or what kind of the revenue ramp-up can be expected in, let's say, over the next couple of quarters and what type of the product this is and what are the customers, whether it is a generic customer or the innovator customer? That would be helpful. Thank you.
They're a mid-sized innovator company who have recently launched a product. It's a new product that they've launched, and we have catered to one of their orders. We have a couple more which are already there in the pipeline, which would be executed also. It's picking up quite decently. However, we don't have the forecast from them because, as I said, they've just launched the product. We anticipate that some kind of a forecasting would be provided to us by next financial year. This year is going to be more about getting the product onto the market and seeing how the product moves. So far, the response from the market has been good.
Is this a product launched by an innovator company very recently?
Correct.
Okay. It is there in the human health, right, rather than any veterinary or eco man, etc.?
This is also in vet.
This is in vet. Okay, thanks. I have more questions. I'll join back the queue.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press "star" and "one" to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sumit Gupta from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you first let us know on new molecules which we are working on currently?
Currently, we are working mostly on the antibiotic segment and oncology segment. As I mentioned earlier, we have close to around 10- 12 products which are there in the pipeline, and a couple of them are at a relatively advanced stage. We are expecting around two to three molecules, a couple of them through antibiotics, and maybe one molecule or so from the oncology.
What can be the market size, potential market size of this?
The potential market size for each product, I can come back to you with the exact numbers because, again, IMS doesn't provide at the API level. I would say this would be put together for the three products, I would say close to around $500 million- $700 million. On all of these three products, again, you know, the same thing is there, wherein you have maybe two or three-player markets with limited competition coming in. They are, again, both complex niche. Even though it is the antibiotic space, these are, again, complex niche molecules where around two or three players are there. Similar in case just like Nystatin. If you see Nystatin, which we launched last March, find the DMF, it is also an antibiotic, but there are only two players, both of them from Europe.
That gives us a lot of advantage with the kind of scale that we have, the expertise that we have, and the approvals in place. Similar kind of thing we are seeing in these two or three molecules that we are looking to kind of launch in this year.
Understood, sir. The second question is on the injectable facility. What kind of ramp-up can we see for this facility?
As we have discussed previously also in other calls, this year is going to be more about launching in the domestic markets only, while filing for the emerging markets. For this year, we have already taken validation batches for a couple of our products in the first quarter only. We have a couple more products that are lined up for validation in Q2 and Q3. We will take our validation batches, those we will be catering to the India market, and then be filing in the emerging markets. Somewhere by the end of next financial year is when we will see commercialization of products in the emerging markets. That is with respect to the ramp-up when you see it from the emerging markets. Now that we are fully integrated on the injectable space, we see ample opportunities even in the domestic. We are just seeing how things would move.
Concord LifeGen and all these are ways to kind of keep further penetrating into the Indian market more and more. Much of the groundwork is there in place now so that we can kind of move more aggressively into the injectables market even in India because we have the APIs, the front end is already there. Now that we are manufacturing ourselves, we will have a full integrated approach to cater to the markets.
Thank you, all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press "star" and "one" to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Alankar Garude from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Sir, firstly, can you provide the capacity utilization across all the facilities?
Yes. In the unit one, in this quarter, the capacity utilization is 75%. For Valthera, it is around 26%. For the Limbasi, it's around 57%.
Sorry, can you repeat the number for Limbasi again, sir?
Limbati, it is 57%. For Valdera, it is 26%. For Dholka, it is 75%.
Okay. Sir, two questions then as follow-ups. One is on Limbasi. We were at 40% in the fourth quarter, which has increased to 57%. How should we read this considering that API sales have declined even on a sequential basis?
Oh, last year, we were at 50%, not 40%. It was 50%.
You are saying fourth quarter FY2025, the previous quarter, not last year, we were at 50%?
No. Yes, we were at 50%. To be precise, it was 52.62%.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. The second question linked to this is, if you look at Valthera, the utilization levels have dropped. Does this include the injectables' capacity as well?
No.
In that case, was there any impact of this lumpiness on the formulation sales as well in this quarter?
Lumpiness, I won't say is much there in the formulations, but it could be that certain material that has been manufactured and shipped by sea has not been considered into the sales. A cut-off sales could be because when we supply to LATAM and to the U.S., we use sea. It could be some portion of that could be on account of that.
Understood. The second question was on pricing. You mentioned that this decline of 10% year-on-year is predominantly due to the uneven customer pattern, procurement patterns. Just on pricing, would you like to comment whether pricing has been stable on a year-on-year as well as on a quarter-on-quarter basis? Broadly, given that we have offered price discounts to customers which have a higher volume of take, is that something which continues for us, or have we seen any change as far as those patterns are concerned?
When we are working with customers across different geographies, prices to many of our customers remain relatively the same. However, when we are entering into newer accounts or we are entering into newer products, say, for example, Nystatin or mycophenolate, at those times, for those opportunities, the prices could be different because they say you are entering as a second-source supplier into certain accounts. The price expectations, given that they are larger in volumes, could be different. It depends upon market to market. It depends upon customer to customer. Whenever you are entering as a second-source lead for your existing or newer products, there could be some pricing benefits that we have to give to our customers. That pricing could be above our average price or could be lower.
The impact of that, I would say, could be at times relatively lower given that we have a much, much, much larger base. The impact may not be that significant enough. That is something that, for future businesses with the newer opportunities, with newer products, new customers, is something that we do on a case-to-case basis.
Got it, Ankur? Just one question here is, I mean, given that there are no new launches as far as immunosuppressant is concerned, would it be fair to say, given your comments, that pricing in immunosuppressant is more or less stable? For the other therapeutic areas, as we expand our presence there, possibly pricing can move a bit depending on some of the new clients which we are targeting.
I wish, Alankar, I could say that prices will remain stable for years to come. As markets change, for now, things look stable. I cannot say how markets would do or how markets would behave. The only way to counter any of these kind of price impacts that may come is through your R&D development. We keep investing in our R&D for our existing products also so that maybe if not today, tomorrow, something comes up, we are able to kind of absorb any of the pressure that may come. That is the only way that we have to kind of work towards products which are well catered to and well addressed markets. Also, given that, as I mentioned earlier, we have 30%-40% of the world market share, we still have another 40%-50% to target.
Many of those opportunities we are already targeting in different geographies for which we have already undergone regulatory inspections. We have done the filings in those markets, and we are awaiting approvals in those markets. That can happen in this year or in subsequent years. We have to see that. Whenever that opens up, that will also help us increase market share even in our existing products. We know which are the customers that we need to target. All our efforts are towards that. As a result, what I mentioned earlier, if you're targeting those second-source opportunities, then there the pricing could change because of that. If it happens to our existing customers for different reasons, the only way to address that would be through continuous R&D improvement.
Got it, Ankur. Basically, you are saying that even for immunosuppressants and other therapeutic areas as well, depending on the new customers we want to target, pricing can vary accordingly.
Correct. I'll tell you an example just to kind of, you know, for one of our products, which we have recently launched, the market price was close to around $350, $400. We launched it at almost 25% discount. At that price, many of those European players are not able to compete. That is the reason why we are seeing a lot of traction. Even with the price that we have, we are able to maintain healthy EBITDA margins. We are going as a second-source opportunity. You have cases like this also, and then you'll have cases where we have to go maybe at certain products, certain cases below our average price. It's dynamic in nature is what I wanted to kind of put it across.
Understood. One last question, with your permission. When you talk about losses from the injectables unit easing off over the course of the fiscal, how should we look at EBITDA margins for the full year? Because 30% this quarter clearly is much, much lower than what we have done for many number of years. Given this performance, how should we look at EBITDA margins for the fiscal?
Yeah. If you see, if you remember that in our last year, first quarter also, the sales were relatively subdued. At that time also, we had mentioned that it could be also as an impact of the fixed cost, which is there and all. That injectables fixed cost was getting fully loaded on the base that we have for the first quarter. As our sales start moving up, this percentage impact will go down. While the value would be more or less in line with what it is, it will trim down when you would start looking at it as the time horizon increases. It is just that for quarter one, it looks higher because of the lower sales numbers.
Got it. Do you expect the facility to break even by the end of FY2026?
I would hope so. I would want it to. The only way for it to kind of do that is that we are putting a lot of our efforts on the domestic front because the opportunity even in the India market is significant for some of the products that we have taken the validation batches and some that we are expecting in the coming months. Those opportunities are large. We are having a more focused approach to kind of penetrate on these four or five products that we are launching for the India market. These things take time to kind of engage with the doctors, to engage with the hospitals. Let's see how that goes. I think given the market size opportunity even in India, we are quite optimistic in terms of how things can move. We have to see that how, you know, how market behaves.
Understood. That's very helpful, Ankur, and that's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press "star" and "one" to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Wangshi from Antiques Stone Broking. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. I just have a couple of questions. Firstly, on the CDMO front, the new contract that we have entered into, is it on the API side of it or the FDF side of it? In terms of the pricing, is it fair to assume that it's a cost-plus margin kind of a strategy that we use?
The opportunity is actually on both fronts, both API and formulation. It's a more integrated kind of a play that we are working with them, and yes, it is a cost-plus model.
All right. Secondly, in terms of the new acquisition that we have done on the U.S. front, given that the U.S. already contributes 17% to the top line, before this, did we have front-end presence there, or is it that we relied on someone else to do the distribution for our products?
I will clarify that. The 17% export that goes also has a component of API as well as formulations. The direct formulations that we are selling into the U.S., Stellon Biotech is basically going to be working in that front. When it comes to APIs into the U.S. market, we will continue with our existing channels, which is direct marketing through Concord to those customers in the U.S. This is only with respect to the formulation because as our portfolio is increasing, you know, is where we are seeing in terms of how we can do that in-house. This is, again, primarily focused only towards formulations, both in-house as well as from third-party manufacturing.
Got it, sir. Just one last question. Given we know our business has a lot of cyclicality, especially on the API side, how should we look at the overall growth for FY 2026? If you can also give some color on how the API and the formulations segments could perform.
I won't be able to comment in terms of giving any guidance in terms of how this year would look like. Typically, our business has growth coming from three or four areas. One is the market growth. Secondly, we have innovators' business getting converted to generic, which also gives us a market share growth. Third is new customer acquisitions, like a second-source opportunity, wherein we enter as a second source with the intent to become a primary source. The fourth is the new products category in terms of how fast we kind of penetrate into customers and start that churning into the volumes. These four components make the overall growth for us, which does not include the injectables, which does not include the CDMO. In a particular year, the third and the fourth bucket are playing out very significantly.
There could be certain years where it may not play out as much as we would have anticipated. For me, it is difficult to say at this point what that growth number could look like. It could be 20%+ . It could be a very different number. Given where we are, we are confident that it should be in line with what our historical performances have been. I just wanted to put it across that these are the four buckets which play out in terms of the growth. We've put all our efforts so that each of these segments plays out and contributes the way that we've looked at. I expect it to be in line with what historically has been without giving any kind of a guidance.
That is very helpful, sir. Just one last question with your permission. In the injectables bucket, how many products do we have, and by when do you kind of target launches for this?
We have already started selling in the injectable formulation in the India market. We have currently launched two products from the injectable facility. We have another two which are expected to be commercialized in the coming months. We have around 10 products in our phase one that we intend to launch for which the work is ongoing.
All right.
For most of these 10 products, we are backwardly integrated.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kishan Tosniwal from Polar Ventures LLP. Please go ahead.
Good evening. I have basically two questions. We are into different segments, right? API formulations and right now into CDMO as well. I just wanted to know the profile of our margins. Are all the businesses having similar kind of margins or do the businesses have different margins?
In fermentation, as you see, there are very limited players globally. When we are competing with the likes of Southeast Asians or European players, definitely the margin profiling is very different compared to the Finnish formulations, which is relatively a little bit more crowded, if I may say. In short, the answer is yes, the margin profile is very different between the two different segments.
Okay.
The second question that I have, I'm seeing the R&D spend, that is the percentage of our sales. It was 3.6% in 2022, 3.5% in 2023, and it has dropped to 2.3%. Can we have a ballpark picture? What is the future that we see? Because as more and more R&D spend increases, our pipeline also increases. Is my understanding correct?
In fermentation, the R&D spend is different from the way that R&D spend happens in formulation. In formulation, much of the R&D spend is coming from the API, which they have, which we end up buying at a higher cost, as well as the BAB studies that we do. That's where the spend in the R&D looks different than what our numbers are. In fermentation, what we do is that much of the R&D actually happens at a very, very small scale.
The rest of the results are only the ones that we kind of take it to a larger scale. This is more about the expertise rather than as the volume gain. That is why the spend looks lower, but the output or the productivity plays out a lot more here. Fermentation R&D has to be looked at differently than some of the other formulation companies that they kind of work on. In our case, we do not have any KSMs that we end up buying from China. Our KSMs are something which are locally sourced, which are agro-based products. The cost also becomes relatively lower. It's more about the expertise rather than the cost.
Okay. If I can squeeze in one more, the R&D employee strength that you are showing greater than 135, if I may know, these are all the, what do you say, scientists only, or these are different category persons like scientists and their subordinates and all kinds of things?
The 135 that is there includes everybody in the R&D.
All subs, right?
Sorry, all subs.
Number is 180. Number is not.
Greater than one eighty. I was seeing API DMS greater than one thirty-five.
Yeah, 180. Yeah, the number is 180, and this 180 number includes everyone.
Is this R&D facility at all the plants, or is it located at one place only? I can see the API facilities at two places and the formulation facility at one place.
We have two R&D centers, one for the API, which is located in A unit, and another is on the formulation, which is located at Valthera.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankeet Pandya from Baroda, BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two or three questions. First of all, on the API side, what is the length of the contract that you have with the clients, like for six months or yearly basis? How is it? Does that include the price escalation clause with the clients?
Typically, you know, we don't have any contracts with the clients. The reason for that is that once you start working with a formulation company, there is a lot of stickiness between the two. For many of our customers, we are primary source. In case for some, we are secondary. The intent for them has been to make us as a primary source. When you have that kind of a stickiness, you don't have contracts. We have quality contracts in place because that's somewhat like a requirement for the authorities. When it comes to supply contracts, I would say very few companies would have, like larger MNC companies may have supply contracts, but many of the other ones would simply be working in terms of interacting with us and kind of working in terms of what their requirements are.
If there's an increase in prices, is it like you all are able to pass it on?
Sorry?
If there's an increase in prices from your end, do you pass it on to the clients?
We have neither increased our prices nor decreased our prices. In one of the earlier discussions, I mentioned that in case there is a pricing pressure on us, we compensate it through our R&D. In case we are able to save, then that is something that we keep to us. We have neither increased nor decreased prices to our customers, most of our customers, I would say, in the last years.
Fair enough. Secondly, on the formulation side, how many launches are we expecting, this including India and our rest of the geographies also? How many launches? If you are giving any guidance for growth for the next one, two years?
On the growth guidance, we did speak about a while back. I won't repeat on that. On the launches, yes, we have filed for a couple of our products. We are expecting approvals in different markets. These are new product launches. Also, in the India market, we have launched with rheumatology segments. This is an extension to the autoimmune that is there. Within the intra, if you see, which is our nephrology dialysis business, we have a rheumatology business also which has been launched. We are seeing good traction even in that segment. Where we see good opportunities in terms of products, we would be looking at launching. Some of them, we are doing it in-house, whereas some other products, we are also in-licensing those products.
Fair enough. Just lastly, on the CDMO front, what is the mix that you are looking at in the long term, beyond three, four years? What kind of contribution should one expect from the CDMO business?
CDMO, if you see, is a very big opportunity. It is very sizable. I think, conservatively, if I have to, I would have to look, I would say that, you know, what internally, what we are seeing or targeting is that if we are able to get maybe four or five opportunities, maybe in totality, around $40 million- $50 million, that itself is a sizable opportunity given where we are. This number, instead of $50 million, could be $15, $20 million also, because, as I said, there are not many fermentation players who have the kind of strength that Concord has because, with our capacities, regulatory approvals, expertise, given the cost advantage that we have versus Europe, and given what is happening with China, people trying to de-risk and looking at India, we have everything in place to become an ideal partner for many of these companies.
The numbers could be very large also. If I consider maybe four or five opportunities with a total of $40, $50 million in total, that itself gives us around 6%- 7% annualized growth over what our historical growth has been. That is something that internally we look at, how we can build at least a $40, $50 million opportunity on the CDMO, while it could be larger as well.
Fair enough. That's information. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Maitri Sheth from Choice Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you again for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions. Are we still on track to achieve a 25% figure on our consolidated top-line revenue? Earlier, I believe you had said that we are expecting a 35%- 40% figure on formulation. Any comment on that?
Again, when we say a 25% figure growth, let me maybe make it a little bit more clear that Concord has all the ingredients in place to kind of go towards that kind of growth. When we talk about the capacities that are there in place, these capacities in their current form can give sales much over the 25%. Do we have a differentiated strategy in place? As I said earlier, in fermentation, there are not many players, and Concord has been gaining market share on its existing products as well as on the new launches that we are doing. Our current business continues to do well. Historically, you have seen that we've had close to around 18% CAGR growth for many, many years now. That being said, there could be a little bit of variability depending upon how things move.
On top of that, we just spoke about the CDMO business and the injectable business. If I say a $40 million, $50 million opportunity on CDMO, that is close to around INR 400 crores, which if you take it on a five-year or six-year period, this could be around 6%- 7% growth. If you take the injectables, this facility can do close to INR 600 crores. Even if I take an INR 300 crore, conservatively on a five-year period because the first one or two years is going to be more about the submissions to the authorities and then getting, so maybe from second, third, fourth year onwards, if you start contributing. If I take an INR 300 crore opportunity also, that itself translates to 5%.
On our baseline growth of 18%+ 5%+ and 5%, it kind of gives us somewhat of a clarity that, yes, 25% can be done. I would also not know how my five years look like. What gives us the comfort is that we have all the right ingredients in place to kind of achieve those growths and something that we have demonstrated historically. That's how the number comes out. When we talk about the formulations, if we have to grow at this kind of a growth that we speak about with an 80%, 20% way that we are looking at, those numbers automatically translate to 40% growth if you're looking at it from a formulation which has a relatively lower base.
Okay. Understood. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. I still have one last question for the day. I would now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, everyone, for joining on our Q1 FY26 earnings call. We hope we have been able to address all your queries. For any further information, please get in touch with us or SGA, our investor relation advisors. Thank you once again and have a good evening.
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