Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited. 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 zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Saurabh Paliwal. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call for Emcure Pharmaceuticals. Thank you for joining us today. I am Saurabh Paliwal, and we'll begin today with brief opening remarks from the management, and then open the line for Q&A after the commentary concludes. Joining me today on the call are Mr. Satish Mehta, Managing Director and CEO; Mr. Taj Shaikh, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Samit Mehta, Whole Time Director; Mr. Vik Thapar, President, Corporate Development Strategy and Finance; and Mr. Piyush Nahar, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy. We hope you have had an opportunity to review the financial results, the results presentation, and the press release that were released earlier. Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded.
I also need to remind everyone about the Safe Harbor linked to today's call. Certain statements made during the call may be forward-looking in nature. These statements are based on our current expectations, assumptions, and management's view as of today. Actual results may differ materially due to a range of factors, including market conditions, regulatory developments, competitive dynamics, operational factors, and other risks and uncertainties. For additional details, please refer to our earnings presentation and press release. I'll now hand over the call to Mr. Mehta to begin his opening remarks. Over to you, Mr. Mehta.
Thank you, Saurabh. Good afternoon, all of you. On a very busy day, I would like to thank you for joining us to review Emcure's Q4 and FY 2026 results. It means a lot that you have found time in order to join me. FY 2026 marked the start of our five-year strategy, focusing on turning last year's operational changes into measurable outcomes. I'm very happy to tell my investors that we crossed a major milestone this year, surpassing $1 billion in revenue and having a growth of 16.6% year-on-year increase, exceeding the guidance role that we had given to you. We also increased our base business EBITDA margins by over 100 basis points, and our adjusted PAT grew more than 40%. I repeat, our adjusted PAT grew more than 40%.
These outstanding results give us confidence that the investments we are making in our people, our people are very important, our processes, and I always keep telling, you know, whenever I have been on the call, that we take pride in telling everyone that Emcure has been built on science, technology, and innovation. Technology, including the adoption of AI across key functions, are obviously starting to deliver. I'm very happy to say that. Turning to key strategic highlights from the year. Let me now focus on portfolio expansion. That's the first thing, you know, I would like to take up. We've strengthened our portfolio in core markets through in-licensing, M&A, and internal R&D. I would now like to highlight three notable partnerships, you know, that we had in the year, you know, that has ended. I'm focusing on in-licensing to begin with.
The first partnership that we had with Novo Nordisk, we also spoke last time. I'm very happy to inform my investors that Emcure was selected as the exclusive India partner for Poviztra, a patented rDNA biologic semaglutide. Rest of the products, you know, that we are seeing in the market are synthetic. This is rDNA biologic semaglutide, which I would like to emphasize. Strong exclusive global data and established device distinguishes Poviztra from the generics which have been introduced. The initial uptake has been promising, especially after the price cut in April 2026. I must say, you know, the pricing, you know, which has been done is very competitive, and we obviously have a story and strategy. We aim for steady growth through FY 2027.
After Novo Nordisk, the second in-licensing that I would like to focus on is Sanofi. We expanded our partnership to include their oral antidiabetic brands, Amaryl and Cetapin, boosting our position in cardiac and metabolic therapies. With this, Emcure is amongst the leading cardiac players, and thanks to Amaryl and Cetapin, we also have now a reasonably good, strong foothold in the metabolic space as well. The 3rd partnership which has happened, and we virtually started billing, you know, from 1st of April, we signed a distribution agreement for select nephrology and transplant medication in India, which has widened our offerings in the therapy. It will not be out of place to mention that we have a reasonably strong position in the field of nephrology. We are one of the top five companies.
To that extent, you know, this portfolio will obviously help us to augment our position in the field of nephrology going forward. These alliances with leading pharmaceutical companies demonstrate our strong commercial capabilities and scale in the India market. India market means a lot to us. After having spoken about in-licensing, I would now talk about M&A and portfolio consolidation. As far as Zuventus is concerned, we completed minority stake buyout for full consolidation and expect operational synergies to play out over a period of time. Globally, we acquired the Manx portfolio in the U.K., to grow our U.K. business and European business as well. Cutimed Inc. we recently acquired in Canada, enhancing our derma range along with Emcutix. Let me now focus on our R&D and pipeline updates. I spoke about in-licensing, I spoke about M&A and portfolio consolidation.
Now let me turn to what has been happening in our R&D and pipeline, which, you know, we take a lot of pride. [audio distortion] remains a key near-term focus. We launched in select European markets in H2 FY 2026 and intend expanding to Europe and rest of the world markets in FY 2027. For bevacizumab ophthalmic biosimilar for wet AMD, we received endorsement from CDSCO subject expert committee. We plan to launch in H1 FY 2027 pending approval. The third important thing is in the field of HIV, where my company enjoys a pole position. We are one of the six global voluntary licensees for Gilead lenacapavir. We have filed DMF and expect to seek product registration in FY 2027. Our scientific advisory committee is shaping our long-term pipeline in four areas. Four areas, let me focus on these four areas.
One is complex injectables, second is biosimilars, third is new delivery routes for existing drugs, and something, you know, which we have been talking for last, you know, couple of calls as well is antibody drug conjugates. Having focused on in-licensing, merger and acquisition, portfolio consolidation, and having given you some flavor about R&D and our pipeline updates, let me now turn my attention to business performance. As far as the year, you know, which has just ended, FY 2026, we grew by 16.6% to INR 9,204 crores, INR 9,204 crores, with a resilient domestic performance and strong international performance. Let me focus, you know, as far as business performance is concerned, to focus on domestic business, which is very close to my heart.
Domestic business grew by 10% in FY 2026 to INR 4,027 crores, INR 4,027 crores, led by Women Health, Cardiac, CNS, and Oncology. I mean, as far as Q4 is concerned, yes, I will admit, first person to admit it was softer, mainly due to Zuventus portfolio and team reorganization causing higher attrition. As you know that we acquired the minority stake in Zuventus, so there was attrition. Integration and new leadership hires have addressed these issues. I'm very happy to say that as far as April is concerned, it's absolutely as per the plan, it is on track, so nothing to really worry as far as Zuventus is concerned going forward. New therapy areas about which, you know, we spoke last time as well, derma, Emcutix, Consumer Health, Diabetes, are scaling well.
Poviztra, Novo Nordisk partnership shows promising early uptake, especially after the price, you know, very price. We are in soft spot, you know, as far as the pricing is concerned, and we do expect reasonable growth in FY 27. I'm very happy to inform that as far as the field productivity is concerned, it has gone up from INR 5.4 lakhs per medical representative to INR 7 lakh per person over a period of last 2 years. Obviously, good things are happening. As far as international markets are concerned, I'm very happy to inform that revenue grew by 22% to INR 5,177 crores in FY 2026. INR 5,177 crores in FY 2026. Europe stronger, strong baseline business growth and successful launches with Manx integration. Canada posted solid growth on market share gains and new launches.
Rest of the world deliver healthy growth across non-ARV and ARV, with non-ARV supporting revenue diversification and ARV maintaining a strong order book. I think, as you know, our non-ARV business is very important, and that's a function of the registration that we get in the various markets. We got reasonably good, you know, registrations. We are very bullish as far as the international markets are concerned going forward. EBITDA margins improved year-on-year due to operating leverage across both domestic and international markets. Now, having talked about, you know, the year which has ended, now let me focus on outlook and growth levers, you know, as far as FY 2027 is concerned. That's what I would like to focus, having spoken about the business, you know, for the year which has just ended.
I talked about the first year of our strategic plan, you know, where we have delivered the results and we have been focusing on execution about whatever we decided in the beginning of the year. Now, as far as the second year of our strategic plan is concerned. I'm very happy to inform my investors, and your presence means a lot to me, that Emcure is very well positioned for strong performance going forward. Our growth drivers are at different stages. The first growth drivers is obviously going to be domestic market. I'm very happy to say that we have a very strong team and portfolio which will drive better than industry growth ahead, especially in cardio- diabeto, biologics, women's health, and new initiatives.
I've been leading this domestic initiative for the last 30 years, and I feel good about the team, you know, which we have built up in last few months, and I feel good about the domestic market going forward. The second lever of growth will be semaglutide partnership, then Emcutix, the derma product, you know, that we have launched. Of course, you know, the consumer business, Earth, which is showing, you know, good uptake. It's stabilizing visibly well. Are in initial stages of scale-up, and we expect returns from this to build over a period of next few years. All these areas, you know, are growing areas like as far as derma is concerned, that's a growing market of INR 14,000 crore. There, because of the strategic initiatives that we are taking, we are bullish.
Earth, of course, you know, we are doing well under leadership of Namita. Canada and Europe, we expect growth to continue, led by market share gains, new launches, and expanded portfolio. Canada and Europe will continue to grow. The fourth lever is amphotericin B, and we expect in the current year, amphotericin B should make significant contribution in FY 2027 on the back of registrations, you know, that we are receiving from different geographies, both regulated as well as emerging markets. In the rest of the world markets, we expect sustained growth led by non-ARV pipeline and robust ARV order book. FY 2027, we project low-to-mid-teen revenue growth.
As I've been explaining in last, you know, meet and the few calls so that I have had the privilege of addressing to you guys, that EBITDA margin expansion will happen as committed between 75-100 basis points going forward, assuming stable regulations and macroeconomic conditions. I think this is based on the assumptions that there will not be a major upheaval or problems throughout the geopolitical level. I think, you know, overall, we are quite optimistic and bullish about the business as far as the second year of the execution of the plan is concerned. In closing, I would like to tell my investors that our strong performance highlights our diversified business model, India-led manufacturing, scientific strengths focused on science innovation technology.
More than anything else, one area on which we are hugely focused is on execution. You know, that's one area where we will distinguish with, we'll make a distinction when you compare, you know, or distinguish ourselves when we compare with other companies. The focus will be on execution going forward. Our priorities are clear, priorities are absolutely well-defined. Achieve sustainable above-industry growth, very important, both in domestic and other market. The second area, as far as execution is going to play a very important role, is to expand margins. That is very important going forward. Get the synergies on account of the scaling of the business, you know, that is happening, create long-term value for my stakeholders.
It's very, very important that my stakeholders at the core of the strategies, you know, that we'll be formulating. I'm extremely conscious of the fact that you have reposed faith in me and my company. To that extent, that will always remain at the back of my mind as we execute our policies, you know, going forward. Again, I would like to reiterate that Emcure's science-driven portfolio and record delivering complex products set us apart. We are different because, you know, we are focusing on technology, our complex products, you know, will set us apart.
Our ongoing investments will be in people, products, processes, and partnerships, you know, that we have position us for growth and profitability across all geographies, as in India, Canada, Europe, and rest of the world as we progress through our strategic plan. I think, you know, as far as going forward is concerned, the focus will be on growth, and growth. Obviously, you know, improving the margins. That's something that we have, and that's how, you know, we will go. Now, I would also like to thank you all and all my Emcureans, you know, for all unstinted support, you know, they have given us, and we are very proud of that.
I would also like to thank all of our shareholders for reposing faith in us and partners, you know, for their absolutely unstinted support, which means a lot to me as an individual at this point of time in my career, and that's the biggest capital that I have. I intend building on it for my shareholders and my partners going forward to deliver results, you know, better results year after year. Thank you for giving me patient hearing. Your support means a lot to us, all of us. Now, I will hand over to Taj, our CFO, to review the Q4 and FY 2026 financial. Taj, over to you.
Good afternoon, everyone. I will take you through the key financial highlights for the fourth quarter and the full year FY 2026. I will be discussing all comparison on a year-on-year basis. Starting with the Q4 performance, revenue from operations for the quarter grew by 16.7% to INR 2,470 crores, up by 16.7%. The domestic business grew by 5.2% to INR 977 crores due to softness in Zuventus arising from the recently concluded minority stake transaction and related leadership changes and team and portfolio reorganization. International markets maintained their strong growth momentum, with revenues growing 25.7% to INR 1,493 crores. Europe reported revenues of INR 538 crores, a growth of 35.8%, with base business, Manx and amphotericin B scaling up being contributing factors.
Canada reported a 28.6% growth, with revenues increasing to INR 399 crores led by market share gains and new launches. Emerging markets grew 15.5% to INR 556 crores, with both ARV and non-ARV seeing strong growth. Gross margins for the quarter stood at 59.4% versus 57.8% in Q4 of FY 2025, up 160 basis points because of a better business mix, especially new launches in international markets. EBITDA, excluding other income, grew 24.5% to INR 485 crores. EBITDA margins improved to 19.7% from 18.4% in Q4 of FY 2025 and 19.5% in Q3 of FY 2026, supported by operating leverage and productivity gains being partly offset by Sanofi OAD contribution.
Depreciation and amortization for the quarter was INR 106 crores. Interest cost was INR 46 crores. During the quarter, we also booked an exceptional expense of INR 43 crores related to Mantra earn-out being higher than initial expectation due to better performance achieved. This was partly offset by reversal of INR 12 crores due to reassessment of new [Lotocort] related liabilities. Excluding the impact of exceptions, the effective tax rate stood at 25.4% for the quarter. Consequently, reported PAT for the quarter was INR 244 crores with a PAT margin of 9.9%. Adjusted PAT came at INR 279 crores, showing strong growth of 36% year-over-year, with PAT margin of 11.3%, which was up 160 basis points. Net debt as of 31st March 2026 stood at INR 1,054 crores.
The increase in debt over the last year has primarily been because of payout for Manx as well as Zuventus minority stake acquisition. Moving to the annual performance for FY 2026. Revenue from operations grew to INR 9,204 crores, a strong growth of 16.6%. Domestic business grew to INR 4,027 crores, representing a growth of 10%. International markets performed well, with revenues growing 22.2% to INR 5,177 crores, driven by strong performance across EU, ROW markets and Canada. EU was the strongest performer, with revenues growing 25.5% to INR 1,850 crores. RoW markets scaled up to INR 1,840 crores, delivering a 21.8% growth. Both ARV and non-ARV verticals contributed to the strong performance.
Canada grew 18.7% to INR 1,487 crores through base business growth and new launches. Gross margins for FY 2026 stood at 60.3%, up 20 basis points. The EBITDA for the year was at INR 1,789 crores, growing 21.8% from INR 1,469 crores in FY 2025. EBITDA margins improved 80 basis points to 19.4%, reflecting improved utilization and productivity gains. The EBITDA margin improvement is despite increase in R&D investments during the year. R&D investments stood at INR 383.5 crores for FY 2026, corresponding to 4.2% of revenue. This was an increase of 50 basis points year-over-year. Depreciation and amortization grew to INR 415 crores from INR 384 crores in FY 2025.
Excluding exceptional and one-time impact, our effective tax rate for FY 2026 was 26%. Reported PAT was INR 941 crores with PAT margin of 10.2%. PAT adjusted for exceptions was INR 1,008 crores, reflecting a growth of 41%. Adjusted PAT margins stood at 10.9%, up by 189 basis points. With that, I will now open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. A reminder to all, you may press star one on your touchstone telephone to ask a question. We will take the first question from the line of Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity, and congrats to the management on good set of numbers. The first question I have on India business, we have delivered around 5% growth this quarter. I understand that there was a Zuventus impact. Is it possible to quantify this impact? Does it mean that since there is attrition and all what you mentioned, the next few quarters year-on-year growth could be affected on account of this restructuring?
Sure. Thanks, Amey. I think just to give the context, right? As you know, we took over Zuventus in end of Q2 to early Q3. We had got a new management team, and I think Q4 is when we did the restructuring of the whole team and portfolio out there. Most of the slow growth that you are seeing is because of that. I think ex of Zuventus impact for the full year, we would have been close to the 9%-10% base business growth that we have been talking about, that we delivered even in the first nine months. Majority of the decline that you're seeing in Q4 was led by Zuventus. I think the restructuring was a mix of portfolio restructuring, team refocus, and which led to a higher attrition.
We don't think the impact lasts for the full year. For FY 2027, what we do expect is we continue to growing above industry. As the CEO had mentioned even in his opening statement, April we are now recovering back on track.
Hello.
Yeah, go ahead.
I think we lost Amey.
Due to no response from the current participant, we will take the next question. We have the next question from the line of Tushar Manudhane. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Yes.
Sir, as far as international market is concerned, if you could just share how much would have been the constant currency growth for each of the segment, Europe, Canada, emerging market. That's my first question for the quarter.
Sure. I think overall for the international market, the currency impact was about at 7%-8% that we had. It was slightly higher, more about closer to 11%-12% in Europe, while Canada and emergents was slightly lower.
Got it. Considering, even if I, let's say, constant currency growth of Europe, the tune of almost 20% to 22%, for the quarter, and then we have niche product scale-up that's happening in Europe. What kind of, you know, outlook, one can think for next two years, 2027, 2028?
Sorry, Tushar, I'm missing a bit. We're talking about the overall international markets or-
I was referring particularly for Europe, like even adjusting for the constant currency, the growth has been great with, you know, a good scale-up in certain niche products. Just was trying to understand the outlook for 2027, 2028 for Europe market.
Yeah. I think in the near term, the growth, we do expect it to be stronger in Europe, especially as AMCo gets launched up. Yeah, once it reaches the scale, I think over the next two years, we do still expect mid-teens of growth in the Europe business as a category.
That should help to get better gross margins as well. At least for Q4 it is not getting reflected compared to Q3, despite improvement in the overall international business per .
If you look at it among the business itself, right, usually domestic is a higher GM business versus international. Now, if you look at it, despite the domestic being slightly softer in Q4, our overall GM has improved Q on Q. Some of that is reflecting out. I think for the full year, we do expect the GCs to remain around that 65% point.
I understood. I understood. Just, lastly, on the domestic, branded play, what kind of industry growth we think would be there for, say, FY 2027?
I think we continue to expect industry growth to be around that 8%-9% order. For us, the target, as we said, the target for us is to grow faster than the industry out, so at a low double digits.
Understood. Thanks. That's it. Bye.
Thank you. We will take the next follow-up question from the line of Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible now?
Yes, you are.
Yeah, you're audible now.
Yeah. Thank you so much. I just have one follow-up question on Zuventus. What kind of operational synergies do you expect in Zuventus? Like, will it improve our India margins? Are you going to consolidate our, like a common molecule brands which are present in both the entities? Like or the MR field force, are you going to cut it down so that that could improve the profitability? Any color on that would be helpful.
Basically, let me tell you that, as far as we are considered on Zuventus is a different segment altogether. Just to give you a flavor, as far as NQ is concerned, essentially focuses on gynec, cardio and metabolic. That's what we do as far as NQ-
Sorry to interrupt, sir. If you're speaking, you're not audible. Hello? Sir, you're not audible.
Yeah, I think we lost the CEO. Can you guys hear me? This is Vik.
Yes, I can hear you, sir.
Yeah. Amey, I'll try and take a stab until Satish is able to join back in. I think the synergies are gonna be more in terms of how we're organized on the sales and marketing efforts. I think what Satish was trying to highlight that given these two segments still cater to very different therapeutic segments. On the manufacturing synergies, it's less because we have plants that are catering to, you know, specific sets of products on both sides. Definitely on some of the sales and marketing and related support functions, that's exactly some of the restructuring efforts that are underway to be able to synergize and get some operating leverage in the sales and marketing aspects of the Zuventus business.
Amit, does that answer your question? We will take the next participant. We have the next question from the line of Bansi from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Just two questions from my side. Firstly, on India, if you can just help us understand, slightly more in detail as to how the acquisition of minority stake, you know, affected the Zuventus portfolio, and the attrition. The second, you know, part to it is that, you know, of our total MR count, you know, what percentage of field force is for Zuventus and, you know, what is the kind of restructuring we saw there?
Sure. I think what happened along with the minority stake, what we also had was the management, big change in the management team, right? Mr. Guha was leading that business since inception. He stepped down, and we had a new team coming in. I think when the new management came in, we also had a relook at the whole portfolio, the team structure that we had. I think something similar to what we did in the cardio- diabeto when we took over the Sanofi, when we structured the teams for which divisions was going to which therapies, what is the focus. That is what we took over in Q4. I think with the management change and all that restructuring, that is what led to a higher attrition in the field force.
As you know, acute is largely a short-term treatment, right? If you have a gap in the field force, it does lead to a much higher sales drop than what you will see in a normal chronic business. Coming to your question on the field force, about 40% of the field force is in Zuventus for us.
Oh, okay. What percentage of this 40% would have seen, you know, you know, restructuring or, you know, change in MR?
I think we structured the whole, so about, so difficult to remember, but the attrition would have been. Normally, if you look at it, attrition is about 20%-30%. The quarter we had a much higher attrition out there.
Oh, having said that.
Not just the.
Yeah.
Sorry, it's not just the attrition, it's also restructuring of couple of the divisions and the products. I think it's not just the attrition aspect, it's also, you know, being repurposed. There is a little bit of disruption related to that happens normally as part of any such exercise. I think all in all, what we're trying to highlight is that that was something carried out towards the end of Q3 and in Q4, but is starting to pay us dividends in the sense that for April, as the CEO mentioned, we are right on target in terms of our own internal expectations for Zuventus. We're very happy with the progress that we're seeing, particularly over the last 45 to 60 days.
All right. Just if you can call out what is our MR strength as of today?
2004. Yeah. What. Yeah. Close to 4,000.
Close to INR 4,000.
Okay. The reason why, you know, I asked these questions is that, you know, at least with, you know, some of your peers, what we've seen is that, on the acute side, you know, when we see such restructuring, of, you know, field force, it does take a while, you know, for the productivity to show up because as you highlighted, you know, this is, you know, short-term treatment. You know, a lot of it is based on your relationship with doctors, et cetera. That is the reason why, you know, I was trying to check. It's good to know that, you know, you're mentioning that you're already seeing improvement in the month of April.
We basically should not expect this to sustain, right, in terms of impact going into the next quarter?
Yeah.
No, we'll be back on track. Again, the other thing, you know, that I would like to say that as Zuventus is concerned over a period of time, you know, we have built some very strong brands, you know, that should also take us through. Though we are in acute, at the same time some very strong brands. I think, you know, that's how, you know, Vik was mentioning some time back, right from April onwards, you know, we are on track and every reason to believe, you know, that things will get better by the day.
All right. Second question, just on our employee expenses. You know, this year we've probably grown at about seven odd percentage. Should we assume this run rate to continue?
Yeah, we expect it to be around 10%.
Okay.
Next year.
Understood. I'll get back in the queue.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Dheeresh Pathak from WhiteOak Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Just carrying forward on domestic growth. For April, can you confirm, like, with Zuventus, the growth is in line with the market or it is still below market growth, including Zuventus in the month of April?
Dheeresh , I don't think we'll comment on monthly growth now, but as the CEO mentioned, right, I think versus what we had targeted out, we are fully on track for that. I think we'll once we have the quarter, that's when we talk about the full year quarter growth.
Okay. Q4, did you say that ex of Zuventus the growth was high single digit? Did I hear that right or something like that?
I think what we said is ex of Zuventus for the full year we would have been at high single digits growth.
The full year. In Q4?
Q4 would have been about, like, 7%-8%.
7 %. All right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Bino from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Just a quick question. You had recently in-licensed these Nephro brands from Roche. Could you give a sense of what is the annual revenue run rate for those brands, and also what sort of upfront payment have you made?
Bino, there's no upfront payment that we have made for this, right? I think similar to all the other in-licensing we have done, there is no upfront payment out here. The portfolio is smaller, only two to three brands, it will be less than INR 50 crore annualized.
Understood.
Bino, what will happen so that we have a reasonably strong presence in nephrology. We ourselves are a strong position, it should help Roche, it should help us.
Got it. A quick question on your guidance of low to mid-teen growth. What sort of currency assumptions have you made? Does that include the benefit of depreciation of INR?
I think the currency assumption, what you're building is an average currency of 92 USD/ INR.
92 USD/ INR. Okay. Yeah, got it. Thank you.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Siddharth Nigandhi from CWC. Please go ahead.
Well, thanks for taking my question. You had mentioned about certain AI initiatives that are beginning to show results. If you could provide some color on that is question one. Second is in terms of market share in your covered markets, how did that pan out in Q4 and in the full year? The third is in the, you know, semaglutide part that you are talking about, right, how are you seeing catch up post the post you taking down the pricing in the month of April? Given the launch of generics, are you seeing your market share grow back? Those are the three questions.
AI part.
Okay. Yeah. Let me start on the AI front, and I can have my colleagues join in. I think the AI initiative, it's very early days, and obviously AI landscape keeps changing by the day. What we are trying to do is really champion it across the company. In places like R&D and manufacturing, we are seeing definite benefits in terms of some of the speed of research and development of some of the products in the pipeline that we're working on. As well as in manufacturing, looking at how to obviously get better efficiencies or throughputs using AI to study our own, you know, batches being produced, et cetera.
Across the organization, whether you talk of support functions like legal, HR, finance, we are starting to adopt AI in different ways and means to be able to make our workforce a lot more productive. Even on the marketing side, whether it's, you know, analysis of sales force effectiveness, and related, you know, sales and marketing initiatives like, you know, graphics design or mark brand plans, et cetera. These are all areas where, you know, we're seeing some adoption of AI bearing some fruit. We're very excited because the real benefits of that will accrue over the next two or three years as we become more and more well-versed in using it more holistically across the organization. To your second question, around semaglutide, I'll let my colleagues also answer.
Certainly, you know, we wanted to be aggressive in terms of the post generic entry, in terms of offering a very robust price point while still offering the innovator brand. We are starting to see some green shoots of that as well. I will pause and let Piyush or Satish Mehta comment on semaglutide and as well as the last question that you had. Thank you.
Samit, would you like to talk about semaglutide? Samit, go ahead. That's something, you know, that is very close to your heart. Go ahead.
Sure. No, I mean, for Victoza there's obviously a lot going for that brand. A, it's an innovator brand. B, it's an rDNA biologic versus the synthetic generics that have entered the market. With this price reduction, I think we have a real sweet spot in terms of the pricing vis-a-vis the generics. Of course, across specialties, there's, you know, close to 1,000 sales reps that are actively promoting this product. We believe that, you know, all this should get us very good traction over the short to medium term as well.
The other thing I would like to add, you know, only some time back, we got also permission for NASH. That's one thing that is happening, newer indications. In addition to that, you know, FCC has cleared, so it should be coming any time. In addition to that, you know, what really happens, that in the price war that is going on with so many generics that are in the market, with absolutely correct pricing strategy, thanks to known all this and reach and penetration and having got some head start, you know, because we started promoting the product from December onwards. I think, you know, going forward, I'm quite optimistic about, you know, Poviztra should do well on the back of, you know, the clinical data that we have.
As [audio distortion] has said, we have access to 40 clinical trials that they have done all over the world. Samit rightly alluded to, you know, ours is r DNA. The rest of the products are synthetic. I think, you know, on the back of, say, science and technology that we'll be talking, we'll distinguish ourselves, you know, from the competition, and let's see how it plays out. At the same time, you know, as I'm talking to you, I'm quite optimistic. Third one, which is the, Piyush Nahar, that you.
That covered market share.
So that's, that you, you-
Yeah. I think overall, given the Zuventus impact that we had in Q4, our market share would have probably been flattish for the year.
Thank you. Thanks for the detailed responses. Thanks.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ankush Mahajan from Sanctum Wealth. Please go ahead.
Sure, thanks for the opportunity. My question is related to the India business. If you see, there are different parts in the India business, like base business is there, then semaglutide and the Sanofi business. Despite all these parts, our growth is just 5%. I just try to understand what kind of a growth we have seen in base business than other business also. What we are, as compared to previous questions, we are realizing that the peers, those have an acute portfolio are facing such problems, like there's a restructuring of a team and all. The growth is almost delayed in for a few quarters. Would you throw some more light on that part?
I think as you mentioned, right? Yeah, the restructuring had impact on Q4. What we are seeing, at least in the last 45 days, 40 or 35 days out of the year, the revival and the business performing as per plan. I think for us, we don't expect the impact to last a very long time for us.
As I explained, you know, some time back, I'm sure, you know, you must have listened, that we have problem only in Zuventus. As far as other business are concerned, like IB, where we are strong in timely cardiac and metabolic, so that continues to perform as per our expectations. Our oncology and nephrology also is performing as per our expectations. Because of change in management and restructuring that Vik eloquently explained, we had a bit of a setback, you know, as far as Zuventus is concerned. As I told you know in my opening remarks, right from April onwards, you know, we are on track, so nothing to worry really.
I would like to just clarify one point. You know, the acquisition of the minority stake and the departure of Mr. Guha happened in the month of October. This is not a recent departure and therefore we're concerned about the lagging effect of that over the next two, three quarters. What we're trying to highlight is some of this started already in, let's say, end of our Q3, carried into predominantly Q4, where we took the efforts over the prior three months in Q4 to have a lot of that restructuring take place. Now we're seeing the green shoots of that.
From our perspective, we think that Zuventus is more or less tracking on back on track, starting in Q1 itself, as opposed to being concerned that this is gonna be a, let's say, two, three additional quarters lag. We're already about four or five months into that entire process.
My assessment is that we almost lost INR 80 crore-INR 90 crore of the business in the last quarter, Q4 from the Zuventus side. Behalf of that, we have grown in the semaglutide side and others also. This growth should be on the higher side.
Piyush, did you follow the question?
I think Poviztra, the semaglutide side is still ramping up, right? It's not a big driver for or a big contributor to growth at this point. As you know, I think as what we talked about even last time, the initial few months it was more about market shaping and building the business and all. Then March onwards, there was anticipation of generics coming in, so there was a price cut. Q4, we didn't have that much of a semaglutide delta in there, in the business out there. I think what it's highlighting is except Zuventus, if you look at it, our domestic business is growing at that high single digit, low double digit rate on an organic basis itself.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Foram Parekh from BOB Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the domestic side. If you can quantify the contribution of these in-licensing products, to the domestic business.
The in-licensing make up for the domestic about 15% of our sales.
Okay. Are we still scouting or are we still interested in doing more such in-licensing deals in the near term?
I'll take that question.
Yeah.
Ma'am, we are concerned, you know, the entire focus will be on organic growth. Build, you know, our own brands and take them to the next level. Also launch the products, you know, from our R&D. At the same time, you know, suppose if something comes in in-licensing, we are obviously pretty open. Because let me tell you, getting the portfolio, cardio portfolio from Sanofi has obviously, you know, given a fillip to our product sales mix that has worked out well. As far as metabolics are concerned, you know, we hardly had any presence before we got, you know, metabolics portfolio as in Amaryl and Cetapin, you know, from Sanofi. What really happened on the back of this portfolio, my own products, you know, with good GCF also started doing well.
I think, you know, while the emphasis will be obviously on organic growth and focusing on our big brands becoming bigger, at the same time, as I've mentioned, you know, in the early part of my address, in-licensing will continue to be part of our strategy going forward. Wherever it is going to be accretive and going to add value, you know, to our current portfolio.
Sure. On the Poviztra brand, how should we look at it? I mean, despite the competition, we had a price cut and we had some encouraging results out of it. Do we see it becoming a meaningful contributor in the next couple of years to the domestic sales?
I think so, you know, because what really happens, you know, thanks to Novo Nordisk, the pricing, you know, is very competitive, and as the market, you know, crowds and most of the people will be talking about, say price war is going to happen in times to come. As far as we are concerned, you know, we'll talk about the say the merit of the product, you know, which is a rDNA product, not synthetic, backed up by a lot of clinical data. We'll be differentiating ourselves, you know, on the back of science, you know, we'll be talking to the doctor. To that extent, as I am talking to you, every reason to believe, you know, that this product should do well going forward for us. Based on.
And, and as-
Yeah, go ahead.
I was just gonna add that, as you already mentioned, as the indications of use continue to widen and more and more specialists become comfortable writing the brand, that's where we think we will continue to gain momentum with this brand as well.
Sure. My second question is on the R&D pipeline towards ADC. If you can just explain what part of the ADC are we planning to do and when do we see this getting commercialized? How long is it, you know, for the commercialization to release?
Sure. There are two parts to the ADC program. One will be a biosimilar ADC, and the other will, you know, have some element of innovation in it, especially the linker around which we have our own IP. The linker and payloads will be in-house. The conjugation will be done in-house. For the mAb, since you know it's a crowded market with available drug substance, we are partnering with, you know, a company to work on the mAb. In that context, the biosimilar ADC should have a shorter approval pathway and, you know, the innovative ADC of course will be slightly longer, but you know, we are seeing some encouraging results in terms of identifying some potential lead candidates.
Okay. By when do we expect commercializing these products? Is it in the near couple of years' time?
The biosimilar ADC, the only reason, you know, I'm not giving out a very specific timeline is because the regulatory landscape in India itself is evolving. You know, many countries globally have done away with phase III trials, which are typically the most expensive, you know, studies which have the longest timeline as well. If, you know, there is some regulatory pathway that is similar to these countries, then it could, you know, take away a significant portion of the development timeline. You know, there's no point in trying to guess where and at what time these paths will coincide, but it could make a significant difference in the approval timelines with and without a phase III. It may not be accurate to give out a timeline, but obviously the biosimilar will be earlier than the novel one.
Okay. Lastly, on the CapEx front, if you can just give us the CapEx expected for FY 2027?
Yeah.
I think there we can give the guide around that INR 400 crores rough number. I think we'll broadly be in that range of INR 400 crores-INR 425-ish crores.
Sure. Okay. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Yeah.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Kunal Randeria from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon. My first question is around the assumptions on your guidance. You said barring any geopolitical events, as we speak, you know, there are geopolitical events afoot that might just push up the prices or would have already pushed up the prices of some raw materials. How much of it, you know, some of the pricing or cost increase would be already baked in your guidance?
Kunal, I think there are couple of factors, right? One is, I think, given the nature of the business and especially some of the markets we are in, for most of the markets, we do have between one to two quarters of inventory. At least for the next couple I think for next one or two quarters, we don't see much of an impact coming through. I think post that, there obviously, we'll have to see if this price elevation lasts across raw material and how much we can pass it on to the customer side. You would have seen even in the domestic market, the IPA has reached out for price hikes. I think we are also looking at what we can do in the international markets. It's still an evolving phase.
At this point, we don't think, if, unless it deteriorates further, it should not be a major impact, but we'll have to see as it evolves.
Kunal, one more point, you know, that I would like to add. This is an industry-wide problem, not necessarily restricted to one company. The advantage, you know, that we will have, that we are not in a purely generic market, you know, because we are having differentiated products. To that extent, our ability, that's what I presume, I don't know how it plays out, will be better in terms of, you know, asking for higher price, you know, going forward. As far as India is concerned, this is an industry-wide problem. IPA has very proactively taken up, you know, with the government, and we are also involved, you know, in the negotiations. Let's see how it plays out, you know, going forward. It's an industry-wide problem.
Understood, sir. Understood. second question is, I think you are looking to file for semaglutide in Canada. Now with two approvals, it might be a bit late, I guess. What is the path ahead? Would you be kind of now partnering with someone, you know, maybe as a marketing partner or what's the path ahead?
Vik, would you like to take that?
Yeah, I can take that. In fact, in Canada, as you know, both Apotex and Reddy's did get the approval very recently. You'll be happy to know that our Mantra subsidiary in Quebec has partnered with Dr. Reddy's, and we'll be launching the product hopefully sometime in Q2 and then ramp up from there. We are obviously filing our own product in Canada as well for addressing, I think, the more, you know, midterm opportunity for throughout Canada. We're very, very excited about, you know, our partnership with Dr. Reddy's to be able to capture, you know, a decent market share in the Quebec market, where we anticipate that the pricing dynamics will be more favorable there relative to even the rest of Canada.
It just shows you the strength of our team that DRL has, you know, chosen to partner with us for trying to capture, you know, that early mover advantage in the Canadian market.
That's good to know. Would it be like a profit share kind of an agreement or more of a marketing margin, kind of a, you know, a fixed marketing margin kind of agreement?
Yeah. I don't want to specifically comment on the deal dynamics. I think it's early days, but you know, I think it's a decent opportunity for us, for specifically the Quebec region, and I think only time will tell how lucrative that can become. Obviously, you know, at the same time, I must say that early days there was a lot of numbers being thrown around for the Canadian market. Obviously, some of the pricing has corrected a bit. We think it's still a decent opportunity, for us looking at the dynamics of the deal, as well as longer term, when we anticipate entering at some point in the future with our own product to address the remainder of the market.
Got it. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Avnish Burman from Vaikarya. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is in continuation with the previous participant's question on the impact of business because of the Middle East conflict. I just wanted to know whether are you facing any constraints in terms of, you know, container availability or raw material or even people in your factories? Is there any impact on the business because of that?
No. I don't think we're seeing any supply issues right now. I think the impact that we have is largely more on the pricing front. We have not seen any impact.
No, again, supplies in the sense, in a limited sense, what is really happening, the solvents, you know, where the prices have shot up. The solvents are not available that we require, you know, for active pharmaceutical ingredients, and that is industry-wide problem, you know, that we are facing. Even for that matter, you know, it will be, one must admit, you know, the insurance cost and the freight cost has also gone up because of the line, longer route, you know, which is required to be taken. At the same time, it's difficult to opine, you know, what is the impact as of now. As Piyush rightly mentioned, you know, some time back, we are carrying inventory everywhere.
If the war continues, you know, for a few months, I think the entire industry, you know, not necessarily pharma, all of us are going to be impacted.
Right. Now, for example, costs like you mentioned freight and insurance costs and all, I mean, these are inventory independent. In these kind of cost increases, are you able to pass it on or are you taking it right now in your P&L?
I think it's a mix. I don't think the guidance, what we are guiding out includes the current, what we are seeing in terms of the pricing.
Okay. For your domestic business, if you have any CMO partners in India, are you facing any bottlenecks from those partners?
No.
As of now, no.
Okay. Okay. My second question is on this, the FDA announced some development on the biosimilar front, where they reduced the R&D cost for developing biosimilars. Just your opinion on, you know, how does it impact the new entrants or the incumbents differently? If you can just talk about that a little bit.
Yeah. I think, you know, many companies will now find it a little more lucrative to enter the biosimilar space because, like I was previously mentioning, phase III, which is essentially an efficacy study, you know, for a lot of biosimilars could possibly be waived off, and that was the largest component in terms of both cost as well as elongating the timelines. You know, once that goes away and we see more approvals coming through that have been filed without the phase III or with the waiver, you know, definitely those biosimilar space will heat up a little more.
That said, that's where company like Emcure Gennova will have the advantage, given that we have been in this business for quite a long time and have developed strong expertise on both the mammalian as well as the bacterial platforms, of which most of the biosimilars are anyway produced. In terms of maximizing or optimizing the titers, the yields, the COGS, we are there. You know, even with competition being very intense and COGS playing a major role, we should be able to thrive in the market going forward.
Understood. Thanks. I will get back in the queue.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. With that concludes the question- and- answer session. I now hand the conference back to the management for closing comments.
Okay. I mean, this is Satish Mehta. Thanks, all of you, for very active participation. I would like to reiterate, you know, that we have delivered strong growth in FY 2026. I, which has exceeded our initial guidance. I understand your concern about Zuventus, but I would like to again reiterate we are in good shape. April has been as per our expectations and, I believe, you know, we will deliver, you know, the growth as per what the guidance, you know, which has been given by the company. Nothing to worry as far as the domestic business is concerned. With our diversified business model, as we keep on talking about the poor position that we have in Canada, Europe and emerging market, I believe we are very well positioned to continue our growth trajectory.
As you know, Piyush mentioned, and as I also mentioned, you know, in my initial remarks, low to mid-teen growth with continued EBITDA margin expansion in FY 2027 will keep on working. That is something, you know, which will happen. As we mentioned, you know, the entire focus will be on execution, processes and people and growth, you know, will be fairly well diversified because the company and the business that we have built, we have very strong four verticals as in domestic market, you know, which I know we should keep on doing better and better as we go along. At the same time, excellent position in Canada, Europe and emerging market that we have.
To that extent business is in good shape and we should deliver results, you know, as per the expectations of the market, you know, going forward. Thank you very much for giving patient hearing and looking forward to interacting with you from time- to- time. If you have any follow-up questions, you know, kindly feel free to reach out to us and we'll be more than happy to answer. Thank you very much.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining with us today, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.