I'll hand the conference over to Dr. Abhishek Sharma, Vice President, Head Investor Relations and Strategic Projects. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening and a warm welcome to our first quarter FY 2025 earnings call. I'm Abhishek from the Sun Pharma Investor Relations team. We hope you have received the Q1 financials and the press release that was sent out earlier in the day. These are also available on our website. We have with us Mr. Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. C. S. Muralidharan, CFO, Mr. Abhay Gandhi, CEO North America, and Mr. Kirti Ganorkar, CEO India Business. Today, the team will provide an update on financial performance and business highlights for the quarter, pipeline updates, and respond to any questions that you may have. We will refer to the consolidated financials for management comments. The call recording and call transcript will also be put out on our website shortly.
The discussion today might include certain forward-looking statements, and these must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that our business faces. You're requested to ask two questions in the initial round. I also request all of you to kindly send in your questions that may remain unanswered today. I will now hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. C. S. Muralidharan.
Welcome, and thank you for joining us for the earnings call after the announcement of financial results for the first quarter FY 2025. Our Q1 financials are already with you. As usual, we will look at key consolidated financials. Q1 FY 2025 sales were at INR 125,245 million, an increase of 6.3% versus Q1 FY 2024, and an increase of 6% versus Q4 FY 2024. Material cost stands at 21.4% of sales, lower than the same period last year on account of better product mix and slightly higher versus Q4 FY 2024. Staff cost stands at 19.7% of sales. Other expenses were at 30.9% of sales, higher year-on-year on account of higher R&D and selling and distribution expenses. Forex loss for the quarter was INR 505 million compared to a gain of INR 20 million same period last year.
EBITDA, including other operating revenues, was at INR 36,076 million for Q1, an increase of 8.3% over Q1 last year, with EBITDA margins for the quarter at 28.5% against 27.9% for Q1 FY 2024 and 25.3% for Q4 FY 2024. Net profit after tax for Q1 FY 2025 was INR 28,356 million, up 40.2% over reported net profit of Q1 last year. Excluding adjustments of prior quarter, net profit was up 20.9%. Going forward, we expect effective tax rate to go up on a full-year basis on account of a number of factors, including some set of certain available exemptions. As always, our tax expense should be seen on an annualized basis. EPS for the quarter was INR 11.8 per share. As of 30 June 2024, net cash was $2.3 billion at the consolidated level. From this quarter, we are reporting Taro financials as part of the combined entity. Over to Kirti, who will share the performance of our India business.
Thank you, Murali. I shall take you through the performance of our India business. For Q1, sales of formulation in India were INR 41,445 million, recording a growth of 16.4% over Q1 last year. India formulation sales accounted for 33.1% of total consolidated sales for the quarter. Sun Pharma is ranked number one and holds 8.6% market share in the over INR 2,019 billion Indian pharmaceutical market as per AIOCD AWACS MAT June 2024. Corresponding market share for the previous period was 8.3%. For the quarter ending June 2024, we grew higher than IPM, and we have done well across all major represented therapy areas. We are happy to note that on MAT basis, the majority of the sales growth has been led by volumes and new product launches versus the IPM growth, which is predominantly price-led.
As per SMSRC MAT February 2024 report, we continue to be number one ranked company based on the prescription volume. Sun Pharma is also ranked number one by prescriptions with 12 different doctors' categories. For Q1 FY 2025, the company launched six new products in India. I will now hand over the call to Abhay.
Thank you, Kirti. I will update on the performance highlights of our U.S. businesses, which includes the U.S. portion of Taro as well. For Q1, our overall sales in the U.S. business is lower by about 1% over Q1 last year at $466 million. The U.S. accounted for over 31.1% of consolidated sales for the quarter. U.S. specialty business has continued to grow. Excluding the sales of Ilumya, the U.S. generic business has also shown growth. For Q1, we launched five generic products in the U.S. On 25 July 2024, the U.S. FDA approved Leqselvi 8 mg tablets for the treatment of adults with severe alopecia areata. We are pleased with the first cycle approval of Leqselvi by the U.S. FDA. This validates our team's capability to effectively bring treatments from research and development to approval.
Currently, a motion seeking a preliminary injunction has been filed in the U.S. court to prevent the launch of Leqselvi. The company intends to rigorously oppose this motion and work towards an early outcome. The decision of the Leqselvi launch will be governed by the decision of the court on the motion. We are excited about the impending launch of Leqselvi in the U.S. We will be unable to address further questions around the Leqselvi launch timeline during today's call. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Shanghvi.
Thank you, Abhay. I will now provide an update on the performance highlights of our other businesses, as well as give you an update on our R&D initiatives. Our branded formulation revenues in the emerging market were $284 million, up by 8.8% over Q1 last year. The underlying growth in constant currency terms was 11% year-on-year for Q1. For all of our larger markets, we have done well in local currency terms. Emerging markets accounted for 18.9% of total consolidated revenue for Q1. Formulation revenues in the rest of the world were $190 million, lower by 2.9% over Q1 FY 2024. Rest of the world markets accounted for approximately 12.6% of consolidated Q1 revenue. We continue to invest in building an R&D pipeline for both the global generics and the specialty businesses. Consolidated investment towards R&D for Q1 FY 2025 stands at INR 7,940 million, 6.3% of sales.
Specialty R&D accounted for 45.2% of total R&D spent for the quarter. Moving on to updates on global specialty. In Q1 FY 2025, our global specialty sales were up by 14.7% to reach $266 million. In July, the European Medicines Agency validated the submission of the marketing authorization application of Nidlegy. It is the first marketing authorization application of Nidlegy and the treatment of locally advanced fully resectable melanoma as potential first indication. In June, Sun Pharma acquired all outstanding ordinary shares of Taro other than shares already held by Sun Pharma. Taro is now a private company and wholly owned by Sun Pharma. The combined entity is better positioned to compete in the increasingly competitive generic industry. The teams are working towards seamless integration of both the organizations. With this, I would like to leave the floor open for questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone phone. 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. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our first question is from the line of Kunal Damesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Kunal, you are online?
Just a moment, sir. Yes, there is no response from the line of the current participant. We'll move on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Suryanarayan Patra from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on the state of numbers. Am I audible? Hello?
Yes, sir. You're audible. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you. My first question is on the U.S. business. Sequentially, we have seen some kind of sequential decline. Is it fair to believe that the entire part of the slippage sequentially is led by the seasonality factor in Ilumya? That is my first question. And also, the related point is that I wanted to understand whether we have seen any sequential ramp-up in the regulated sales, because I think the 12-month period would have expired, and now this quarter would have fallen in the new 12-month period where the volume share would have gone up. So despite that, there is a slippage. Hence, I wanted to clarify these two points relating to the quarterly slippage, what we have seen in U.S. sales?
So a large part, like you said, in the specialty sales is because of the seasonality of Leqselvi. Barring Leqselvi, which for seasonality reason has declined from the previous quarter, every other specialty product has shown growth. As far as generic revenue is concerned, we should assume quarter one number to be similar to quarter four number of the prior year.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So that means we might not have seen any meaningful uptick in the regulated. That is what we should understand, right?
Sales of this product will only be a little episodic. To estimate regular consistent sales each quarter is difficult.
Sure. My second point is about any update about the Chinese Ilumya launch, any progress that we have seen, because that could be a sizable opportunity. So I'm just trying to continuously get a sense about that.
So no, I think based on our interaction with the licensee, our sense is that the product is doing well. It's getting accepted in major hospitals, and they are happy with the response they are getting from the marketplace, and doctors are happy with the clinical outcome the patients are getting from the use of product.
Okay. So then this will be part of the ROW sales or emerging market sales, then, sir?
It will.
Whether it would be a royalty kind of thing?
It is a product supply and royalty, yeah.
Okay. Okay. And part of the global specialty sales?
It will become part of the global specialty. So to that extent, the sales would be lumpy. It may happen in a quarter, may not happen.
Okay. Okay. And third point that I wanted to have a sense of, see, in fact, in the annual report, you have mentioned about building capability now, clinical capability now. Can you just elaborate what is the kind of or what that you want intended to say about it, and in what way that will help us either to the specialty or to the overall business of Sun Pharma?
No, I think clinical development capability helps us consider licensing a product with, let's say, late phase 2 development, because then we have to do the phase 3 and all of that ourselves, like also file the product, get regulatory approval, negotiate with the FDA for the label. All of the skill sets and capability help you with the ultimate success of the specialty product in the marketplace.
Okay. So will this lead to a kind of saving in terms of the cost?
Yeah. Can you join back the queue, please?
Sure. Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bino Pathiparampil from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Leqselvi litigation, is this injunction a new case that has been filed or an application in an ongoing litigation, and when was it filed?
It's a recently filed litigation.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neha Manpuria from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Abhishek on Winlevi, IQVIA seems to be showing very sharp peaks and dips in prescription trends. But your comment for the last few quarters has been that we are seeing improvement there. Just wanted to understand any reason for the discrepancy in the revenue and the RX. Is IQVIA not capturing that? And is the traction that we're seeing in Winlevi in line with the expectation, especially given the changes that you mentioned you've done in the last quarter?
Abhay?
Hello?
Sorry. I was on mute. Sorry, Neha. I was saying that we have consciously worked towards improving the realization for prescriptions. And that's working well. So although you may see a drop in the prescriptions, I think the product revenue is growing at a healthy pace on a smaller basis, of course.
Okay. Despite that, you're still seeing growth in the product quarter-over-quarter?
Yes.
Okay. Understood. And that's in line with expectations as well. Or do you think this?
It's a conscious strategy that we adopted.
Understood. I know this is very early. For the GLP-1 product, it's just entering phase 2. Given we don't have a presence in diabetes in the U.S., how are we thinking about commercialization? Would this be something that we could potentially out-license, commercialize, or own? Or even if I were to ask EM versus U.S., could we see commercialization earlier in the U.S. for this product? Any color on timelines would help.
Clearly, I think U.S. as well as in Europe, which are large markets, we will not have the front end to commercialize the product ourselves. So that is a market in which we will consider partnering or even licensing the product. A player who can help us get a sensible share of the market, because that may also be equally useful for getting better marketing. In emerging markets and in some of the larger markets, we may have our own capacity to bring the product to market ourselves.
Would emerging market happen earlier, sir? Given it would take time to use.
As on today, there is no plan to conduct separate studies for emerging markets. So it will be part of a global trial.
Understood. And Abhishek, if I can squeeze in one more question on the R&D, we've given an 8%-10% guidance. Obviously, first quarter is significantly lower. Should this step up in the consequent quarters, given the timelines haven't really changed for the pipeline?
Yeah. I think you should presume a step up in the subsequent quarters.
Got it. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Damayanti Kerai from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on U.S. generic business. Now, like you said, Taro is part of the U.S. business. So how do you see this business growing? And if you can also update on any update which you have on the Halol plant from FDA perspective?
Abhay, maybe you can respond to the Taro.
I'll probably just echo what you have been saying to some of the entire calls. We were already 80% shareholders of Taro. So we were always intimately involved in the running of the business. And to that extent, nothing changes. Both teams are now working towards integrating both organizations and making it into a far more efficient single entity. And that work is ongoing. The second part of the question, if you would like to answer.
Any update on Halol from FDA perspective?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think the idea is that once we are clear, which should be shortly, we will request FDA for a re-audit of the facility. But that's a decision that we will take once we are 100% sure.
Okay. My second question is on Leqselvi for this new litigation which Incyte has filed. So obviously, you mentioned that you intend to directly oppose that motion. But you intend to bring this product into market. So is there a possibility that you look to settle this litigation?
I think, especially in the context of the U.S., either a favorable judgment or settlement will always remain an option.
Okay. Either of these two. Fine. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Damesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Can you hear me?
Yes. Loud and clear. Please go ahead.
Sure. Sure. So sir, when we look at our specialty business growth from here on for the next, let's say, 2-3 years, what would you be planning in terms of volume growth, the new product growth, and pricing mix? In your view, what would be the ideal mix in this business? And for the new product-related growth, would you say that our current pipeline is sufficient to support what you have in mind?
Unlike say a market like India, which we have been operating for decades now, to have a very clear answer on how much is volume, price, and other factors that you mentioned is very difficult for us. But philosophically, we always work towards growing volumes. And price increase is taken as a bonus rather than as the way to grow. So I think increasing volume, growing faster than the market, and increasing share of the prescriptions from the doctors is where the organization's focus has always been for any product in any geography. Coming to new products, again, in the specialty business, you don't have the luxury of launching multiple products. So we are looking forward to launching Leqselvi. And we hope to be doing a good job with the launch of this product when we are able to.
Sure, sir. Thank you. And on the Leqselvi launch, would you say some of the launch cost is already built into our current quarter P&L, or there are more to come?
Obviously, when you launch the product actually in the market, the market in the sense sales, expenses will be higher than what you see for the current quarter.
Sure. But some of the, let's say, backend processes like reimbursement or excess personnel, maybe a little bit of additional sales force, etc., would that be already there in the quarter, or that will also come?
It would be. It would be.
It would come, or it is already there?
It is already there, but it is expected to go up when we actually launch the product in March.
Sure. Sure, sir. One for CFO, sir, what would be your current net cash position as of June 24?
$2.3 billion.
$2.3 billion. Thank you. One more question. I'll join back the team.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. Congrats on a good set of numbers. The first question I have is on the Taro integration. Is it possible for the management to outline the integration benefits coming out of Taro consolidation, like in terms of manufacturing landscape, etc.? Is it possible to quantify the impact on the cost on margin sizing? Thank you.
So as on today, as we explained, I think Taro has been operating as an 80% owned subsidiary for a long time. So there are no major structural changes likely. As Abhay explained, we are working with a view to create an integrated single organization, both for customers as well as for suppliers. That is what is our current plan. So we are not seeing any significant short-term synergy. But I am sure that as we continue to focus and make our operations more efficient, synergy will evolve. Abhay, do you have any point to add?
Nothing to comment, sir. Thank you.
Sure. So second question I have is on the U.S.-specific market. We have three units which have been affected by the regulatory issues. Is it possible to tell how much of our pending pipeline for the U.S. is affected because of these plants? And are there any meaningful launches for the U.S. generic market in the coming years? Thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to all.
Sorry.
Yeah. Abhay, if you answer, you were.
No. I was saying that critical launches that are important for us in the generic business, I mean, we are not dependent on these three plants. But having said that, if I look at the total basket, naturally, products that we have filed from these two facilities will be impacted. Did I answer your question? Was I audible?
You were audible.
Okay.
Mr. Shalke, do you have any further questions?
No, thank you. I will join back.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to register for questions, you may press star and one on your touch-tone phone. The next question is from the line of Girish Bakhru from Orbi Med. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Abhay, just to comment on Illumya, given it's four years to launch, I mean, I don't know whether it's possible to highlight if the peak sales year for Illumya is within the next two years, or would you say it still has a long way to go given the IL-23 adoption?
I would think we have a long way to go because we still have headroom to grow in the current indication. When we get this psoriatic arthritis indication, that's an additional element that opens up for us. In my opinion, we are not near to the peak sales of the product as yet.
Just related, I mean, we have seen two aggressive launches recently. Bimzelx came and has been grabbing a lot of, I think, prescription share. So Sotyktu has also been doing well. I know yours is a more medical benefit product, but any comment you can share on whether the rebating has increased in the class or the volume growth is a bit of a challenge now?
Without naming, I think at least one of the two products that you mentioned, in my opinion, has actually not met expectations of the organization, at least. I don't think, I mean, the class that we are into in psoriasis always was a highly populated class in terms of number of options. I don't think that pressure has increased. That pressure was always there. Within that, as you said, since we have a medical benefit product, we have been able to find a niche in which we are able to find ways to grow.
Understood. Second question was on Leqselvi, actually. I know your comment on the launch timeline, but reimbursement for this class has been a very challenging issue. Pfizer also has been talking about that. Possible to comment, have you had any discussions already with the players on the product? And I mean, assuming the launch comes, would the uptake be slower?
I don't really want to go there at this stage. It's evolving. We are engaging with the players with the guardrails that we have to maintain prior to the launch of a product. We feel that there is interest in the players' community for our product. How it evolves, I think let's wait for it, and then we will probably give you a little more briefs in color.
Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So just with respect to Ilumya for the indication of psoriatic arthritis, where we are in terms of the recruitment of patients? I mean, 60%-70% done, 80%-90% done, something like that?
We have shared the, what you call, details about when we expect to file for this product. I think one study is complete. I mean, for sake of clarity, one study is very close to getting completed. There are two arms of the study. One is with biologic-naive patients, and the other is with biological.
Sorry to interrupt. Tushar, there is a lot of background noise coming from your line. If you can mute your line when you're.
I muted myself. I muted myself.
So biologic-naive and biologic-failure patients. So I think, hopefully, we should meet the timeline. Some of these patients are difficult to recruit.
Considering that and considering the other products sort of into completing the phase 2 and sort of top line data in first half of 2025, just trying to understand what would lead to a big step up in the R&D spend as far as FY 2025 is concerned.
You're trying to link up this with the R&D spend?
Not just for Illumya, but considering the other products in their current phase, not just specifically Illumya.
But we are only sharing details about products that are already in clinical trial. We are not sharing any information related to our plan for initiating any further studies.
Got it. That helps. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Damesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity again. We have seen a sharp uptick in India revenue in Q1, around 16% year-on-year growth. So if you can highlight what is we have said that we have seen growth across therapies, but any particular variable affecting this? And is this growth momentum sustainable for the rest of the year?
Yeah. As I said earlier, we are seeing growth across the therapies. The business is performing well because the majority of our growth is also coming through volume, which also talks about the growth in prescription. Your comment, whether this momentum will continue, is difficult to say because we don't know how the markets will behave in the next two quarters. Our idea has always been to grow in line with market or slightly higher than market so that we gain a market share. We also focused on volume growth.
Okay. But there isn't any additional channel that we would have focused in this quarter, right? Maybe modern trade or something which would have led to higher growth?
No, no, no. I don't think there is any additional channel in this quarter.
Okay. Sure, sure. And our staff cost growth on a year-on-year basis is quite muted. I can see only 2% growth. So is it related to some of the cost efficiency measures that we have taken? And are the performance-related wage hikes, etc., baked into the current quarter?
No, I think like what we said for majority of the expenses, you look at annualized costs. Don't look at quarter-on-quarter. There will be some amount of adjustment or periodicity which may mask actual underlying numbers.
Okay. And last one from my side, I think the atopic dermatitis trial readout for SCD-044 has been moved to H1CY25 versus earlier guideline of H2CY24. So what is causing this delay?
I think recruitment of the subjects.
Okay. We expect any more delays here, or we are kind of okay with the guidance?
Yeah. I think the idea is that we shouldn't give explanation rather than giving the outcome. That's a position that we try and achieve in all businesses. Hopefully, within the next sometime, we should achieve that also in clinical trials. Because I have never explained our performance that because of this reason, we did not achieve the numbers. It's better for me to factor everything before I give guidance.
Sure, sure. The last one, since we are on specialty, we have said that we might look at in terms of outlicensing that GLP-1 molecule, right? But do you have any particular timeline in mind as to when in terms of development stage we would be looking out for partners?
My sense is that once we have greater clarity in terms of clinical outcomes, since we are in patients, is the best time at which we will start to have partners.
Sure, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to register for questions, please press star and one on your touch-tone phone. The next question comes from Sumit Gupta from Centrum. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question on Illumya. How much is the share in the psoriasis market and collagen category in the U.S.?
Sir, could you please repeat? I need to check the voice for me, please.
Okay. So what is the share of Ilumya in the psoriasis market in the U.S.?
You're talking all categories?
Yes.
Very small. It's like 0.5%.
Okay. And how do you?
It's only the IL-23 class, then we'll be closer to 8%.
8%.
IL-23.
Okay. How do you expect it to over the next 4-5 years or over the long term? How do you see it going forward?
I mean, hopefully growing.
Pardon, sir?
I mean, hopefully the idea is to grow.
Okay. Just for any guidance on the overall revenue growth over the next two to three years?
No, we don't give long-term guidance.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saion Mukherjee from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. I just want clarification on IL-23, 8%. This is the volume market share or the patient market share you're referring to?
This is the prescription market share or the TRx, as we call it in this segment.
Understood. And the second on Revlimid , so you mentioned it is flat quarter-over-quarter. I remember last quarter, it wasn't significant. So should we assume that it is not a significant contributor this quarter and it can increase in the subsequent quarters?
I mean, we don't guide product-wise. So for me to give you each product granularity is difficult because we don't guide.
Okay. But would you say it is a significant contributor in the current base that we have?
I mean, I did not understand the question. What do you mean by significant contributor?
So would you consider it a significant contributor to your revenues in the U.S. at this point? Because this opportunity is there for a limited time. So I just wanted to understand, would you consider it as a significant contributor?
Like you know, it's a limited quantity launch. The quantities that we have are not very high. It's one of the important contributors to the generic business. There are other interesting products that we have in the portfolio as well.
Okay. Understood. Yeah. Thank you.
Saion, for this quarter, the contribution from Lenalidomide was not large.
Mr. Mukherjee, do you have any other follow-up questions?
No, I'm done. Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Suryanarayan Patra from Philip Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. The first question is about the field force expansion that we have consistently done over the last couple of years in the domestic formulation side. So since the exercise of expansion over the four-year period that we have completed now, so what is the stance here? Are we thinking about further expanding, extending into the Tier 2, Tier 3 kind of towns, cities like that? And if that is not further getting expanded, then is it fair to believe that now the focus would be on enhancing the productivity of the people that have been added and hence improved margin going ahead?
I don't think what gave you the idea that even while we are expanding, the focus is not on improving productivity.
No. In fact, see, obviously, it takes at least a year or two for the addition of the field force to see a kind of real productivity of the new people. So that's why I said that, okay, since we have been consistently adding people over the last four years, so now if we are now focusing more on the kind of optimizing the productivity of the people that have been added in the recent period, what stance that we would be having here?
So broadly, what I'm saying, whenever we use expansion as a strategy, we always look at our productivity doesn't get diluted. That's what I can say.
But practically, the sales for this thing, MR, in the recent year has to some extent slipped a little. Although it is not very significant, but it has come down a bit. So that is why I was trying to understand that whether we will go back to the previous peak and hence improvement there also. From that angle, I was coming to this question.
Sure. I understand what you're saying, but I think it will not have a big impact.
Sure. Okay. Similarly, even in the emerging market, we have added even around 10% kind of field force there. So could you share what is the share of the branded market there in the emerging market, branded in the sense of branded generic and pure generic? And since we are adding people, then is it fair to believe that the share of branded generic is likely to go up in the emerging market there also?
I think broadly, our entire business, excepting some tenders, almost the entire emerging market business is branded generics only.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So then around 9% kind of people addition, what we have done in FY 2024 as per the annual report. So whether this is an ongoing practice or this is kind of a special effort that we have done to boost the branded generic business?
I mean, I would not know because there are a large number of countries. But I mean, 8%-9% is not a dramatic increase in number of people. Because we have a large sea, there are three things which we have to keep in mind. One is you have a constraint about the number of products that can promote. The second is the number of therapy areas that can promote. So sometimes simply because you are starting ophthalmology product in some country, we might have to start and hire new people because the same people can't go to ophthalmology. So decision-making is country-therapy specific.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Is it fair to believe that this?
Surya, can you move back in the queue, please?
Yeah, yeah. Sure.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next follow-up question is from the line of Tushar Manudane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead. Tushar, your line is unmuted. You can proceed with your question.
Yeah. I'm audible?
Yes, sir.
Just one more question from my side. On ROW sales, there's been quite a subdued for the last two quarters. Any particular reason you want to comment? Just to understand, we need to think about doing follow-up.
Sir, your line was a lot muffled. I believe we were not able to understand your question. So if you can please try again.
Is this better?
Much better, sir. Yes, please go ahead.
Sir, just on ROW sales, in terms of growth, has been quite subdued for two quarters. So just would like if you could explain the reason for the change and how to think about it going forward? Thanks.
One reason would be possibly because of the what you call price cuts and generic product pricing pressure in Japan. But I think we are expecting even that business to be able to continue to do well as time progresses.
Understood, sir. Okay. Thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nimish Desai for closing comments.
Yeah. Nimish is still pretty much top of mind. I'm Abhishek here. Yeah. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call and at this late hour. For any questions that still remain unanswered, you can reach out to the investor relations team, and we'll be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, that concludes the conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you.