Eris Lifesciences Limited (NSE:ERIS)
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Apr 27, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q1 22/23

Aug 5, 2022

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Eris Lifesciences Limited Q1 FY 2023 earnings conference call. We have with us on call today Mr. Amit Bakshi, Chairman and Managing Director, and Mr. Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director. 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 then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the company. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to our conference call for the first quarter of financial year 2023. I'm Krishnak umar, and I'll be sharing the highlights of the quarter with you. I'm happy to open the call by sharing that our Zomelis mother brand has hit a monthly run rate of INR 100 crore per annum on a monthly sales basis in just 2.5 years from acquisition. This represents a growth of more than 8x in monthly sales since acquisition. When we acquired this brand, it was doing a monthly sale of INR 1 crore, and now the monthly sales are to the order of INR 8.3 crore-INR 8.4 crore. In addition, Glimisave MV has joined the club of brands with more than INR 100 crores of annual revenue on a MAT basis.

Now we have three brands clocking more than INR 100 crore of revenue per year, namely Glimisave M, Glimisave MV, and Renerve Plus. By the end of this financial year, we expect to have four brands of 100+ crore revenue in our portfolio, inclusive of Zomelis. Secondly, the Oaknet business, which we closed the deal in mid-May 2022, the business has been showing strong traction since then. The business has clocked a Q1 revenue of INR 55 crore, out of which INR 31. 5 crore have accrued to Eris post-deal closing. The business has clocked an EBITDA of INR 10 crore in Q1, of which INR 6.4 crore have accrued to Eris in Q1 post-deal closing. This quarterly run rate of INR 55 crore revenue with INR 10 crore of EBITDA looks sustainable throughout this year.

The IPM growth in Q1 of FY 2023 was 2%, and our covered market grew by 2.7%. In comparison, Eris registered a growth of 8.1% in this quarter, which is 4x the growth of the IPM and 3x the growth of the covered market. We have given the details of our therapy-wise growth in our investor presentation. I would like to highlight a couple of aspects in this regard. Firstly, we see a revival of the growth momentum in the cardiometabolic market with an average growth of 13% seen during June and July of this year. This comes in sharp contrast to the average growth of 4%, which we have seen over a protracted period of the last 12 months, starting from June 2021 to May 2022.

We believe that we can expect a stronger momentum in our core cardiometabolic business in subsequent quarters, given the sharp revival being seen in the last two months. Secondly, I'm happy to share that Eris has made significant strides in diversifying its therapy base over the last two years. We now have three emerging therapies, CNS, women's health, and dermatology, collectively accounting for 20% of our branded formulations revenue and growing at more than 25% per annum. While the cardiometabolic therapy continues to remain our mainstay, its concentration is now down to 53% of our portfolio. We have been discussing for some time now that financial year 2023 will be the most exciting year yet in terms of new product launches.

We have kick-started this process of new product launches in July with the launch of two key products, Glura, which is our brand of sitagliptin, and FCM, a strategic offering that bolsters our women's healthcare and cardiovascular franchises. We have also launched Zomelis D and Zomelis DD, which are combinations of vildagliptin and dapagliflozin. In quarter three, we have several launches lined up in diabetes involving combinations of vildagliptin, dapagliflozin, sitagliptin, glimepiride, pioglitazone, and metformin, which will aggregate to 20+ SKUs. Now coming to the financials. Our standalone entity clocked an operating revenue of INR 329 crore for the quarter, which represents a growth of 7.3% year-on-year. Our standalone gross margin in quarter one stood at 82% in comparison to 83.6% in the last financial year, primarily due to product mix variations in quarter one.

In quarter two and quarter three, we expect up to 200 basis points impact on gross margin on account of the upcoming new product launches I discussed before. Excluding the impact of new products, the overall impact of industry-wide raw material cost escalation remains minimal for us. We have expanded our field force by around 150 in this quarter, and the standalone YPM for quarter one stands at INR 5 lakhs. The standalone EBITDA margin for quarter one stood at 38.4% versus 40% last year, largely driven by the dip in gross margin. The EBITDA margin of Eris' standalone business, which represents 82% of total revenue, continues to be among the highest in the industry. We have consistently maintained an average EBITDA margin of nearly 39% over the last six financial years.

The finance cost of INR 7.2 crore in quarter one is largely driven by the cost of financing related to the Oaknet acquisition. Other income for Q1 is lower compared to Q1 of last year on account of the utilization of some treasury investments for the Oaknet deal and due to the impact of rising interest rates on the residual treasury investments. Standalone effective tax rate for quarter one was 11% as the Guwahati facility contributed to 78% of total revenue in the quarter. Standalone net profit margin for Q1 is 29.1%, which is lower by 522 basis points compared to last year, largely due to the Oaknet deal-related factors discussed earlier. Our consolidated operating revenue for the quarter was INR 399 crore, which represents a growth of 14.1% over Q1 of last year.

Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter was INR 129 crore, and this represents a growth of 2% over quarter one of last year. Consolidated PAT for the quarter degrew to INR 93 crore, largely driven by the impact of the Oaknet deal, as discussed before. In our investor presentation, we have given the breakdown of revenue and EBITDA by segment of business, and this will be a quarterly feature from now on. Eris MJ Biopharm Private Limited, our subsidiary which houses the insulin business, clocked a revenue of INR 2.1 crore in quarter one. As you know, we have made significant investments in people with 140 MRs and 60 managers joining the field force in quarter four of last year. We also continue to invest in promotional activities.

In this financial year 2023, we expect our insulin business to deliver a top line of INR 20+ crore with an EBITDA loss of INR 15 crore. In addition to the expansion of human insulin, we plan to launch Glargine in quarter three of this year, which is one year ahead of our earlier guidance. To this effect, we have entered into an in-licensing arrangement with Biocon. Our Gujarat facility remains on track to commence commercial operations in quarter four of this financial year. The total CapEx incurred on the facility in the first quarter was INR 34 crore, and the total CapEx incurred on the facility till date is INR 100 crore. The total CapEx outlay for the facility is to the tune of INR 170 crore-INR 180 crore.

By way of guidance for FY 2023, we are targeting a consolidated revenue growth of 30% and a consolidated EBITDA growth of 16%-17%, including Oaknet. This is after absorbing the one-time loss of INR 15 crore at EBITDA level, which will be delivered by M.J. Biopharm. Aggregate, this represents an EBITDA margin of 32%-33% for this year compared to a 36% EBITDA margin last year. This dip in EBITDA margin is on account of a number of investments which are concurrently getting bunched up in this financial year. Firstly, the Oaknet acquisition and its impact on the P&L. Secondly, the kick-starting of the insulin business and its impact on the P&L. Thirdly, the plethora of new product launches that will happen in Eris in quarter two and quarter three, and their impact on promotional activities.

Last but not the least, the commissioning of a new manufacturing facility in the later part of this year. We expect our EBITDA margins to normalize over the next two years, and we will be back at 36% EBITDA margin levels by FY 2025. In addition, I'm happy to share that Sujesh Vasudevan, a pharma industry veteran, has recently joined our board. He brings over 30 years of experience from the pharma industry across leading Indian and global companies in the areas of sales and marketing and business development. These were the highlights for the quarter. We are now happy to open up for Q and A.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Krisha Kansara from Molecule Ventures. Please go ahead.

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Hello? Hello? Yes, go ahead.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, hi.

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Hi. Sir, my question was regarding the dydrogesterone market. In the past phone call you had mentioned that, dydrogesterone market has high potential to grow. How does your company plan to capture this market given that a lot of players have entered this particular market of late? Thank you.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Are you referring to Dydrogesterone?

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Yeah, Dydrogesterone.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, while it is true that a lot of players have entered, and we were expecting a lot of players have entered, simultaneously there has been certain cases of price drop also. At the same time, the market is also expanding very, very fast. Still I think the market growth is around 30%. We still stand our guidance. We guided for what, INR 30 crore, KK? Yeah. We are more or less there.

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Okay. Sir, can you guide us about the market size of this particular Dydro market?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

I'm sorry I'm not sitting with the markets individually at this point of time, but, you know, my colleagues will be happy to help you in this regard.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

See, the market is currently growing so fast. I think, it's presently around a INR 600 crore market with a growth rate of 30+% . Clearly, this is going to be a big market. I mean, we have placed a big bet on this market because we expect Rolute to be a INR 100 crore product for us over a four-year time frame. That is the kind of bet that we have taken. This is going to be a very big market. I think it is a little difficult to predict where it will settle down.

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Okay. Sir, one last question regarding Rolute. Where does it stand in terms of margin? Sales, I think you mentioned, but what about the margin profile?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah. The margin profile, as you know, the API supply suppliers for this molecule are still relatively few and far between. In terms of overall margin profile, Rolute sits lower than, you know, what we used to get in our standalone business. We expect that the situation will correct over a period of time, next two to three years, when there will be more suppliers in the market and the margins will catch up. As of now, it is lower than our overall standalone margins.

Correct.

Krisha Kansara
Investment Analyst, Molecule Ventures

Thank you. Okay, sir. Thank you so much. That's all from my side.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vivek from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Vivek Kumar
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is there are a couple of questions. One is on CNS segment. If you can highlight why the segment is relatively weak for the market and why the product Renerve, I think, that is not growing or relatively soft compared to the past trends. Thank you.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

CNS. When we talk about CNS, we don't include, Vivek, Renerve into that. Renerve we classify into VMN. While this might not be the case with the AIOCD, but just to take, keep the therapy little pure, we don't do that. One thing, Renerve is. Renerve as a vitamin B12 as a leading brand had some kind of a bump in the last year first quarter. As you know, nutraceuticals, almost everything was performing well. CNS business now internally, one is an AIOCD representation, but internally it's more or less INR 100 crore for us and still growing at a good, healthy 25%. It has not been because of new launches, it is because the old products have been growing better. CNS has hardly seen new launches in the last three years.

What I can remember is only two. This is, you know, a very simple trajectory of a young company in terms of revenue, getting into the specialty and making its way. In a way, at a smaller volume, these growth have been, you know, historically easy to come. That's how it stands with us.

Vivek Kumar
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Understood. Second question is on the glimepiride/metformin combination. Not just Eris, but across the market, this combination is relatively soft over the last one year. Any specific reason for that? Is it the market that is now getting saturated?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, Vivek. I remember I talked about this in the last meeting, that how, you know, we would continuously see the glimepiride/metformin market getting weaker by the day. Typically, it just doesn't slide down very badly with chronic therapy, but over a period of time, the new patients start dropping off. We are not very positive about the glimepiride/metformin market. But what is important for you to know is that there is another market which has now become very big. It is called glimepiride/metformin with voglibose. We have a market-leading brand there, I think number two brand there called Glimisave MV. Glimisave MV for the first time has crossed INR 100 crore at the MAT level, and it's still growing 15%, internally and some 12%-13% on the AIOCD.

Fortunately, because we have a second brand which is now becoming little stronger than the first brand, this market would sustain for a longer period of time if you mix both of them. Glimepiride/metformin is going to be softer. Everything which has glimepiride will remain softer. The era of sulfonylureas is not as much as it used to.

Vivek Kumar
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Understood.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Just to round it off, Vivek, sulfonylureas we see as a 6%-8% growth category for us, of which we expect around 3% will come from volume growth and 3%-4% will come from price increase. That is the kind of outlook that we have for pure sulfonylureas.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Absolutely.

Vivek Kumar
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Thanks, K.K. If you look at your margin guidance right for FY 2025, the company is expected to reach back to around 36% kind of EBITDA margin that you have highlighted. What kind of the revenue growth you need to pull off in order to achieve around 36% of EBITDA margin by 2025?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

I think on the revenue front, we have absolute clarity on this year where we have guided to a 30% growth, and there is a strong line of sight for that. I think for the next couple of years, our thesis is that, you know, the IPM growth, a lot of it depends on how soon does the IPM growth get back on trajectory. I think we have always maintained that, you know, if the IPM were to get back to a 10% per annum kind of a growth trajectory, then for us to deliver a 14%-15% growth on the back of that, I think that would be a baseline that we would look at, right? That is all I can say at this point. A lot depends on when the IPM gets back on track.

I think I made a comment about the margins because it's important to understand that the dip in margins that we see this year is driven. It's just a one-off thing because it is driven because of all investments getting bunched together this year. It's not because of any fundamental change in the characteristic of our business.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Correct. I hear.

Vivek Kumar
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Thanks, Amit. Thank you. That's from my side.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from the line of Gurang Sakare from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Thank you for taking my question. Sir, maybe I missed your comment, but there is a dip in EBITDA margin on standalone basis YOY. I mean, what would be your comment on that?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, there is a dip of 160 basis points in the standalone EBITDA margin, which is completely driven by the dip in standalone gross margin of the same amount. This has happened because of a change in the product mix in this quarter. It is not on account of any other reason. I think we have also guided to a 200 basis points dip in gross margin in the next two quarters because we have a lot of new products that are getting bunched up for launch in the next two quarters.

As you know, whenever the new product launches happen, they usually come with a lower gross margin to begin with and then over a six-12-month timeframe, the gross margins of these new products will fall in line with our corporate gross margins as we take the manufacturing in-house. That is the trajectory that will play out over the next two to four quarters.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Okay. Thank you, sir. Another question is, to what extent can the profitability of Aprica portfolio be improved?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Aprica, I think 20% is something which we are very comfortable with. Being a low base business, it has seen some kind of a headwind in the first quarter. Aprica is also going to benefit largely because of new products. You know, whatever small business is, but it's a very pure-play diabetic cardio business actually. So the new products will immensely benefit Aprica in the remaining three quarters, but we still maintain that the profitability will be at around 20%.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Okay. Another question, sir, adjusting for the Oaknet revenue, the guidance seems to be around 10%-12%, if my understanding is correct. As you have indicated, there is a good pipeline of launches, you know, especially in diabetes portfolio. Any, I mean, do we have a particular reason for conservative guidance or?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah. I think 12%, 13%, 14%, it falls somewhere in that zone. I think the guidance for organic growth, as I discussed a couple of minutes ago, it is going to depend on, you know, how soon the IPM revise. Because the quarter one growth in the IPM is 2%, right? You know, to give a growth guidance of anything more than 12, 13, 14%, we really need to see the IPM, you know, getting charged up in a big way. Whenever that IPM growth gets back to 8%-10%, that's a million-dollar question, right? Nobody is able to foresee that, right? That is the reason why the organic growth guidance is to the tune of 13%-15%, and the rest of it is made up by Oaknet, so collectively 30%.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Okay. Sir, I mean, on this insulin Glargine, is there any royalty payment that will be made to Biocon for sale of it?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, there is a royalty payment at the start.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

One time.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

One time. It's not royalty.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

It's a one-time payment, so you can call it as a one-time licensing fee.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Licensing, yeah.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

We have a sourcing arrangement on an ongoing basis, which doesn't involve any royalty payments.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Okay. Connected to that, Biocon already has their, I mean, they already sell insulin glargine in Indian market, right? They will continue to sell. We'll be competing with them. Is it fair to have that understanding?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, that's a fact.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Right. Okay.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

How Biocon might be looking at it would be probably that, you know, they would like to increase their pie of the overall, you know, raw material which is being supplied in India. This is a good way for them to have, you know, more people taking from them and increasing their share in the whole pie.

Gaurang Sakare
Assistant Manager of Institutional Equities and Pharmaceutical Sector, Motilal Oswal

Right. Right, sir. Thanks. Thanks a lot, sir. Thank you for answering my questions.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Sure. Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Once again, a reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from the line of Harsh Paria, a professional investor. Please go ahead. Mr. Paria, please go ahead. Next question comes from the line of Vishal from Systematix. Please go ahead.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Thanks, can you share some color on what's driving the growth of the dydrogesterone market? You said it's grown about 30%. What's driving that?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

It is considered to be a better product from the progesterone. Technically, if you ask me, progesterones is being used to support pregnancy, especially when there is a little bit risk in the pregnancy, right? Progesterone market in India has been a INR 1,000 crore plus market, and dydrogesterone is considered to be a better progesterone in terms of, you know, supporting the pregnancy. It has better outcomes. Typically it is compared to a vaginal progesterone, which is the gold standard. Just because of being a better product, we see a lot of shift happening from the progesterones to dydrogesterone, which is also a part of the same family. That's the science and the evidence behind that.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

What's the pricing difference between the gold standard and dydrogesterone?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

These are all based on clinical trials. You know, these are all called evidence-based medicine. When large clinical trials are conducted, it came out that dydrogesterone has a better pregnancy outcome. You know, they measure between two groups, which group has, you know, more pregnancy losses. This is a curated trials which, you know, people do, and the whole science is based on evidence-based. Dydrogesterone, that scores over progesterone. That is why the market is shifting to dydrogesterone.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Is the price difference quite steep between the vaginal progesterone and Dydrogesterone?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

No, Dydrogesterone actually is expensive. It's more expensive than vaginal progesterone.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Will affordability be a constraint in terms of driving the shift to dydrogesterone?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

You know, typically what happens, you know, when it comes to pregnancy, we generally see that such indications have never been price-driven because the therapy lasts only for three to four months . Generally, the price component here has never been the driver. It's the clinical outcomes, the pregnancy outcomes, which becomes very important. Because Dydro has a better outcome data, that is why it will continue to grow.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Would you have any benchmarks in terms of how is the penetration of dydrogesterone in the Western markets, say U.S.?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

I will not be having that offhand, but I know they are number one. Dydrogesterone is number one there. What is the difference and how big is the market? I won't have an idea.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Got it. Okay. Thank you. That's all from my side.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Just an additional point on one question that was asked before. The exact data is that on a MAT basis, the DPP-4 market is now INR 700 crore in India, and it is growing at 60%. It's a, it's a very, very fast-growing market, and it is going to be a very big molecule to play.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Is it, Rajeev, that a number of participants have entered and they are able to expand the market? Is that the reason?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

That is usually how market expansion happens.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

As more API sources come available, as more companies enter the market with their own brands, cost of therapy goes down. That is typically how market expansion happens. I guess not only in DPP-4, but any of the diabetes patent expiries that we are seeing now. It's a similar trajectory everywhere.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Just one more on dapagliflozin. Are you also driving sales in other indications that dapagliflozin is approved for? Or you're just focusing on diabetes space?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

The basic approval for dapagliflozin itself, it has a huge, huge market. There are basic three indications, which is heart failure, which is diabetes control, and which is product protection of kidney. These put together are very, very large indications. The adoption is still 20% of dapagliflozin in all these three specialties. We feel that this adoption will go to 60% over the next five years. That's why we see, you know, so much of growth coming in the market.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. With respect to voglibose, you said that Glimisave MV is doing well. Just one question on that. Can voglibose be also combined with DPP-4s?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

I will not be able to say that because that's in the domain of DCGI. I mean, technically speaking, science do support that. Whether it happens or not completely depends upon the DCGI, the ministry finding the combination.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Currently, there are no combinations available with voglibose and DCGI. Is that?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

No, they are not.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Tarun Shetty, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.

Tarun Shetty
Individual Investor, Individual Investor

Hi, this is Tarun from Haitong Securities. I just had a question regarding your EHPL business. Because currently we see a sharp decline in this space and the margins are also negative. Could we have some guidance on this and in for the year or maybe forward?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Sorry, your voice is a little unclear. Is your question about margin guidance for the year?

Tarun Shetty
Individual Investor, Individual Investor

No, no. My question pertains to the EHPL business, the trade generics.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Okay. Got it. Yeah. There has been a decline in the trade generic, which is akin to the market. The market last year had a very wonderful run, you know, when there were supply issues in the branded formulations to a certain extent. The market has cooled off, so have we cooled off. Strategically, if you look, we, you know, we lost around INR 8 crore last year in this business all put together. That was the EBITDA loss which we made last year in this business. What I can assure you today that we would be EBITDA neutral by the end of the year. That's what we are chasing. Volume is something which I will not be able to guide. We don't have clarity on volume as of now.

Tarun Shetty
Individual Investor, Individual Investor

Okay. Any other strategy to grow this business or you are planning to keep it at current levels, like, around 6% of revenue contribution?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

The plan is to make it profitable now. Once the profitability comes in, the growth will follow.

Tarun Shetty
Individual Investor, Individual Investor

Okay. Yeah. That's it from my side.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Puneet Pujara from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.

Punit Pujara
Equity Research Associate, IIFL Securities

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, I have one question that earlier we had guided that our insulin glargine is in phase III clinical trials, and we were expecting it to launch in calendar 2023. Now, given that we have in-licensed the product from Biocon, could you please provide some update about our clinical trials and our plans of launching our own insulin glargine? Also any update in the outlook of other products which were in our pipeline, say, semaglutide liraglutide, that we have said will launch or every 12-15 months. That would be helpful.

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, sure. No, that's important. The MJ Glargine has already. The randomization of the patients for phase III clinical has already been achieved. Once the randomization achieved, it runs for six months before the study closes, goes to the DCGI and then comes back. It is in line with what we have said earlier. As KT mentioned, that we are trying to do is just, you know, buy that one year or whatever that ends up to be to launch an early Glargine. The long-term strategy remains intact. We just wanted to get into market quickly. That was the reason we got in, you know, we got what we have got. The long-term strategy doesn't changes, and the clinical trials are very in line. The same is true for liraglutide.

We have done the randomization of liraglutide as well. Again, it will follow the same trajectory. Earlier it was looking that liraglutide would be delayed to Glargine by six months. Now things are not as tight. It seems that both of them would be hitting more or less at the same time, so.

Punit Pujara
Equity Research Associate, IIFL Securities

Sure, sir. Will it be correct to assume that both are currently in phase three and both will be launched, very near to each other, liraglutide and Glargine?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

I think so. The clarity which we have right now, you know, indicates that.

Punit Pujara
Equity Research Associate, IIFL Securities

Sure, sir. Sir, will it be right to assume that the Biocon in-licensing deal will help us, you know, increase our learnings about the Glargine market as such, and that will help us ramp up our own product whenever we launch after phase III trials are over?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, absolutely. It's going to get us to the learning curve early. We are going to, you know, get used to the market. The other products which are, you know, the pens and the administration piece. It's going to be a learning curve. We'll be available. Insulin business availability is a very key thing. You have to spend longer times to really put the business together. That will help us reduce that time and what you said. I'm with you on that.

Punit Pujara
Equity Research Associate, IIFL Securities

Sure, sir. For a last question before I join back the queue, will we be running our product and our in-licensed product parallely or this agreement with Biocon is just for one year?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

I can't tell you know, too much about that. What I can tell you is that our long-term strategy still remains, and we do have an exit clause with the current arrangement.

Punit Pujara
Equity Research Associate, IIFL Securities

Okay.

Sure, sir. That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Vishal from Systematix. Please go ahead.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Thanks for the follow-up. Could you give a sense on what is the current contribution of the old generation molecules to your overall business?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Sorry, the contribution of?

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

The old generation molecules, like, the glitazone franchise and probably, telmisartan too. If you think there are others also which were in the growth rates have matured or, maybe in the mid-single-digit growth rates, those kind of molecules. What is the current contribution of these molecules?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

See, the data is available in the public domain, right? It's for everybody to see. I think the more important point is, you know, where we are in time, whether it is cardiac or diabetes. I think a lot of brand generic companies like us have been playing in the old generation molecules for a period of time because the new generation molecules were simply not accessible to us. Now, you know, one by one, those molecules are coming off patent. You know, there is something big that happened last month. Then we are having a bunch of combinations getting launched in the next two quarters. January, something big will open up. We have patent expirations lined up all the way to 2025. The whole market is going to shift to these new products.

The way we see is we have two tiers of products in our system. Tier one for us is, you know, all the gliptins and gliflozins that will come off patent, the cardiac products that will come off patent. We have insulin, we have Glargine, we have liraglutide. This is a bucket, you know, that will be a hyper-growth bucket, not only for us, but for the entire market. It, I mean, dapagliflozin even after one and a half years after going off patent, it is still growing at, you know, 40, 50%, right? This tier one bucket is going to drive the growth of the entire therapy and for us as well.

The older generation molecules that you mentioned, whether it is the sulfonylureas or the telmisartans or the olmesartans and other molecules, this will continue to be the bedrock of everybody's business. These molecules are not going anywhere, and they are not de-growing also. In terms of growth outlook, as I said, sulfonylureas will be like a 6%-8% growth segment. The telmisartans of the world will be like a 10%-12% growth segment. Overall, we can expect a sustained growth of around 10% from this base portfolio, which is a combination of volume growth and price growth. This base portfolio will throw out a lot of cash, which will continue to get invested in the growth portfolio. That is how I would look at growth overall.

If you ask me how much this shift can happen, you know, I have a data point from the U.S. market for you on oral anti-diabetic, where, you know, DPP-4 and SGLT2, these two categories drive 85% of the U.S. market by value. That is the extent to which the shift can happen. But it will happen very slowly over a period of time. It is not going to be a knee-jerk kind of a reaction.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

There is large headroom, even from here on for these.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Oh, yes. There is massive headroom. I think in DPP-4 and SGLT2, we're just getting started.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Are you also targeting launches on the vitamins and minerals front during the year or maybe in the near future from differentiated-

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

We have nothing substantial lined up. The launches this year will be focused on diabetes, women's health and cardiovascular.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. You had earlier in-licensed an iron product. Is that on the market or not?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Can you please come again?

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

You had earlier in-licensed an iron product, which probably was supposed to be more bioavailable than the existing iron products.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Correct.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Is that being promoted to the market?

Amit Bakshi
Chairman and Managing Director, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah, yeah. It is in the market, but we have lost the plot. We are now doing INR 4 crore a year. Not excited about that anymore.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. That's not scaling up as you would have wanted.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yes.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Just one more on your. Could you share what was the EBITDA to OCF conversion for the quarter?

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Yeah. This quarter it has been to the tune of 25%, which is substantially lower than what we are used to seeing, which is again because of a bunch of investments in, you know, so the new product launches come with a higher receivable cycle, so that is one reason. We had a significant amount of investment in inventory, which is again building up for new product launches. 25% in Q1, and my expectation is we will be on a similar level in Q2 also.

Vishal Manchanda
SVP of Institutional Research, Systematix

Okay. Thank you. That's it from my side.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan for closing comments.

Krishnakumar Vaidyanathan
Executive Director and COO, Eris Lifesciences

Thank you for your participation in the call. Eris delivered a Q1 consolidated revenue of INR 399 crore with an EBITDA of INR 129 crore and a PAT of INR 93 crore. Our net profit margin reflects the impact of the Oaknet deal on depreciation, finance costs and other income. The Oaknet business acquired in May 2022 is off to a strong start with INR 55 crore of revenue and INR 10 crores of EBITDA in this quarter. This looks like a sustainable trend throughout this year. Our Domalith mother brand has hit a monthly run rate of INR 100 crore revenue in just two and a half years of acquisition, representing a growth of more than 8x in monthly sales since acquisition.

By the end of this financial year, we expect to have four brands having a revenue of more than INR 100 crore per annum. Our three emerging therapies, CNS, Derma and Women's Health, accounting for 20% of our portfolio, are growing at 25%+ per annum for several consecutive quarters. For this financial year 2023, we are targeting a consolidated revenue growth of 30% and a consolidated EBITDA growth of 16%-17%, including Oaknet. This will be driven by a combination of growth in our power brand and new product launches, where we have significant action lined up in quarter two and quarter three. Thank you all. Have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Eris Lifesciences, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

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