Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 FY 22 earnings conference call of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in 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. Nimish Desai, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening and a warm welcome to our fourth quarter FY 22 earnings call. I'm Nimish from the Sun Pharma Investor Relations team. We hope you received the Q4 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, Managing Director, Mr. C.S. Muralidharan, CFO, Mr. Abhay Gandhi, CEO of North America, and Mr. Kirti Ganorkar, CEO of India Business. Today, the team will discuss performance highlights, update on strategies, and respond to any questions that you may have. As is usual for ease of discussion, we'll look at consolidated financials. Just as a reminder, this call is being recorded and a replay will be available for the next few days. Call transcript will also be put up on our website shortly.
The discussion today might include certain forward-looking statements, and this must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that our business faces. You are requested to ask two questions in the initial round. If you have more questions, you are requested to rejoin the queue. I also request all of you to kindly send in your questions that may remain unanswered today. I'll now hand over the call to Mr. Shanghvi.
Thank you, Nimish. Welcome and thank you for joining us for this earnings call after the announcement of financial results for the fourth quarter and full year FY 2022. I hope you and your family are doing well. Let me discuss some of the key highlights. FY 2022 was a good year for us, with consolidated top line growing by about 15.6% to INR 384,264 million, and an EBITDA growth of 23.6% and adjusted net profit growth of 29%. All geographies have done well and have recorded double-digit growth for the year. For the FY 2022 fourth quarter, consolidated revenues were INR 93,861 million, recording a growth of about 11% year-on-year, driven by strong performance across markets.
Branded formulation revenues in India and emerging markets together now account for about 50% of our global consolidated revenues. Let me now update you on our global specialty business. We've done well in the specialty business over the past few years. Global specialty revenues contribution has nearly doubled from about 7% in FY 2018 to about 13% in FY 2022. In FY 2022, we've recorded a strong ramp-up in our specialty sales, which were up by 39% to reach $674 million. We've seen a strong traction in global ILUMYA sales for the year, which were up by about 81% to $315 million. This figure does not include about $100 million of ILUMETRI end market sales. During the year, we added WINLEVI to our portfolio, which was commercialized in the US in November 2021.
We continued our efforts to take our specialty portfolio global with ILUMYA launch and CEQUA also in Canada. For Q4 2022, global specialty sales were $185 million, up by about 30% over last year. Specialty R&D accounted for approximately 20% of our total R&D spend for the quarter. Abhay will give you more details on the specialty business later. I will now hand over the call to Murali for discussion of the financial performance.
Thank you, Mr. Shanghvi. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to all of you. Our full year and Q4 financials are already with you. As usual, we look at key consolidated financials. I'm happy to report that our top line for FY 2022 has crossed the $5 billion mark, while the net profits have crossed $1 billion. The full year FY 2022 sales were at INR 384,264 million, a growth of 15.6% over FY 2021. Staff cost stands at 19% of revenues, lower than last year. However, in absolute terms, the staff cost has increased on account of annual merit increases. Other expenses were at 28% of revenues, marginally lower than last year.
However, in absolute terms, the other expenses increased on account of higher selling distribution travel expenses, while in FY 2021, these expenses were lower on account of pandemic-related restrictions across markets. Foreign gain for the year was INR 1,540 million compared to INR 237 million FY 2021. EBITDA for the full year was at INR 101,697 million, a growth of 23.6% over the same period last year, with EBITDA margin of 26.5% compared to 24.8% year-on-year. EBITDA margins have expanded by about 170 basis points to a 26.4% driven by operational efficiency and cost management. Margins have expanded despite input cost pressures on normalization of branding, promotional, and travel expenses.
Excluding the exceptional items from non-recurring tax credit for both FY 2021 and FY 2022, the adjusted net profit for FY 2022 was at INR 76,671 million, up by about 29% year-on-year, crossing the $1 billion mark. Reported net profit for FY 2022 was at INR 32,727 million. The company has repaid debt of about $355 million in current fiscal. Over the last three years, the company has repaid debt of about $1.38 billion. As of March 31, 2022, at ex-Taro level, the net cash stands at $713 million. At the consolidated level, including Taro, the company has a net cash of about $2 billion.
Our focus on improving return ratios is yielding results, with ROCE improving by about 2,288 basis points to 16.4% compared to FY 2021, return on invested capital by 306 basis points to 21%, and return on equity has improved by 236 basis points to 15%. Let me discuss the Q4 FY 2022 performance. Q4 sales are at INR 93,861 million, up by about 11% over Q4 last year. Material cost as a percentage of revenues was 27.1%. Staff cost was up 12.4% year-on-year and stands at 20.1% of revenues. Other expenses were up 11.7% year-on-year and stands at 13.3% of revenues.
Foreign gain for the quarter was INR 1,610 million, compared to a loss of INR 108 million for Q4 last year. EBITDA for Q4 was at INR 22,797 million, up by 14.6% year-over-year, with resulting EBITDA margin at 24.3% compared to 23.5% for Q4 last year. Excluding the impact of exceptional items and related deferred tax, the adjusted net profit for the quarter was at INR 15,817 million, up by about 18% for the adjusted net profit of Q4 last year. Reported net loss for Q4 was at INR 22,772 million, including the exceptional charge of INR 39,358 million. The adjusted EPS for the quarter was INR 6.60.
Let me now briefly discuss Taro's performance. Taro posted Q4 FY 22 revenues of $143 million, an adjusted net profit of about $27.4 million, lower by 3.4% and 11.6% respectively over Q4 FY21. For the full year FY22, revenues were at $561 million, up 2.3% year-on-year, and adjusted net profit was at INR 126.4 million, lower by about 10.6%. In February 2022, Taro acquired Alchemee, formerly the Proactiv company from Galderma. The acquisition includes Alchemee's business and assets worldwide, including the Proactiv brand for acne treatment. I'll now hand over to Mr. Kirti Ganorkar, who will share the performance of our India business.
Thank you, Murali. Let me take you through the performance of our India business. Our India formulation sales for the full year financial 2022 were at INR 1,27,593 million, recording a strong 23.4% growth over previous year. Even if we exclude the contribution of COVID product, the underlying business has performed well with about 20% growth over the previous year. For Q4, formulation revenues in India were INR 30,956 million, recording a growth of about 16% over Q4 last year. Contribution from COVID product was negligible at about 1% of India sales for the quarter. India business accounted for about 33% of consolidated revenues for Q4. We have maintained the trend of the past few quarters of outperforming the average industry growth, which has led to increase in our overall market share.
As per AIOCD AWACS data, our market share has been gradually increasing over the past few quarters. For Q4, it was at 8.86% compared to 8.59% for Q3. On a MAT basis, as per AIOCD AWACS data for March 2022, our market share was 8.34%. We have witnessed growth across most of our therapy areas. The growth was driven by a combination of factors like normalized market condition and improved patient flow to doctors' clinics, which led to higher growth in chronic and semi-chronic segments. New products are also contributed to the growth, and we are seeing good momentum in new products launched in last 24 months. For Q4, we launched 11 new products in the Indian market. Field force operation were near to normal in Q4 with almost all doctors' clinics operational.
The productivity of the new field force continues to improve. Travel costs for medical representatives were near to normal, while we continue to see some saving in terms of the cost of medical conferences. The field force expansion done in financial year 2021 has made the good success. Considering the current market conditions, we will be undertaking a further expansion of about 10% of our field force in the financial year 2023, driven by twin objective of brand focus and geographical expansions. Sun Pharma is the largest pharmaceutical company in India, and as per SMSRC report, we are number one ranked by prescription with 11 different doctor categories. I will now hand over the call to Abhay.
Thank you, Kirti. I will briefly discuss the performance highlights of our U.S. businesses. Our overall U.S. business grew by 12% to $1,526 million full year FY 2022, driven mainly by the strong performance of our specialty business. Global ILUMYA sales, coupled with ILUMETRI end market sales, are now nearing the half a billion dollar mark. For Q4, our overall formulation revenues in the U.S. grew by about 5% over Q4 last year to about $389 million. The main driver of growth again was the specialty business, which grew 24% year-on-year. U.S. accounted for about 31% of consolidated revenues for the quarter. Q4 witnessed a large number of Omicron-related cases in the U.S.
While doctors' clinics were open in the U.S. during the quarter, the patient flow to doctors' clinic as well as frequency of doctor calls by our medical reps are both still below pre-COVID levels. Our specialty revenues in U.S. have grown over Q4 last year, mainly driven by ILUMYA, CEQUA and ODOMZO. This is despite the decline in ABSORICA sales due to the entry of generics. WINLEVI continues to generate significant interest among dermatologists as a new treatment option for acne. Till date, over 9,000 doctors have prescribed WINLEVI. Our established presence in the dermatology market will help in ramping up WINLEVI going forward. We will not be able to share more details on WINLEVI on this call. Let me now update you on our U.S. generics business.
While the U.S. generic business continues to be competitive, the Sun ex-Taro generics business has grown for the full year FY 2022. While we do experience price erosion, we have been able to counter it by a combination of new launches and better supply chain management. In Q4, we launched five new generic products in the U.S. market. In terms of complex generics, we have commercialized generic Amphotericin B in the U.S. market. We also recently launched generic mesalamine extended release capsules in the U.S. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Shanghvi.
Thank you, Abhay. I will briefly discuss the performance highlights of our other businesses, as well as give you an update on our R&D initiatives. Our branded formulation revenues in emerging markets were at about $905 million for the full year, up by about 16% year-on-year. For Q4, sales in emerging markets were about $206 million, up by 7% over Q4 last year. The underlying growth in constant currency terms was about 10% year-on-year for Q4. Emerging markets accounted for about 17% of total consolidated revenues for Q4. Among the larger markets in local currency terms.
Russia has grown by 43%, Romania by 18%, and Brazil by 32%. As of now, we've not witnessed any major impact of the geopolitical issues on our operations in Russia. Our presence in Ukraine is very small. For the full year, formulation revenues in rest of the world market, excluding US and emerging markets, were about $732 million, up by about 11% over last year. For Q4, rest of the world sales were $178 million, up by about 7% over Q4 last year. Rest of the world markets accounted for approximately 14% of consolidated Q4 revenues. API revenues for Q4 were at INR 4,137 million, lower by around 5% over the Q4 last year.
We continue to invest in building a R&D pipeline for both the global generics and the specialty businesses. R&D efforts are ongoing for the U.S. emerging markets, ROW markets, and for India. Consolidated R&D investment for Q4 were at INR 5,433 million compared to INR 5,571 million for Q4 last year. Our current generic pipeline for the U.S. market includes 93 ANDAs and 13 NDAs awaiting approval with the US FDA. Our specialty R&D pipeline includes four molecules undergoing clinical trials. ILUMYA is undergoing a phase III trial for psoriatic arthritis, while SCD-044, an oral dermatology product, is in phase II trials for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. MM-II is also in phase II trial for treatment of pain in osteoarthritis. Our GLP-1 agonist, GL0034, is undergoing phase I trial for type two diabetes.
The board has proposed a final dividend of INR three per share for the year FY 2022. This is in addition to the interim dividend of INR seven per share paid in FY 2022. Taking the total dividend for FY 2022 to INR 10 per share compared to INR 7.5 per share for FY 2021. Recently, our Halol factory underwent a cGMP inspection by the US FDA. Post the completion of inspection, US FDA issued 10 observations. We will be filing our response to the FDA on the corrective actions to be undertaken for addressing these observations within the stipulated time. We will not be able to disclose further information on Halol as of now. Lastly, on the guidance for FY 2023, we expect high single-digit to low double-digit consolidated top-line growth for FY 2023. All our businesses are positioned for growth.
Ramp up in our global specialty business is expected to continue. As indicated in our previous calls, overall expenses are inching up as markets across the world normalize. R&D investments is expected to be between 7%-8% of sales next year. With this, I would like to leave the floor open for questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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 is from the line of Tarang Agarwal from Old Bridge Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Good evening. Just wanted to.
Sir, if you can speak closer to the handset, please. Your voice is not audible.
Hello. Two questions from me. The first one, there was a settlement that was undertaken in this quarter, and similarly some settlements were undertaken in the previous year as well.
How should we see this going forward? Are there any further settlements that are anticipated? That's number one. Number two, is the specialty business as a SBU now, breaking even on cash flow basis?
All the ongoing litigations have been disclosed by the company in the annual report, as well as have been disclosed by us in the past. I think it will help you in understanding what are the potential. We believe that, we have strong case for all the residual cases. However, all of this depends finally on the way in which the litigation progresses. We feel reasonably comfortable that, we should be able to do quite well in these litigations. What was the second question?
Specialty business
We don't give out the business-wide specific profitability numbers. I think as you see, we've grown that business quite well, and the business continues to grow well. I think that's important for that business to become an increasingly more important component of our overall business.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neha Manpuria from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on the specialty business. It seems to be a flat number quarter-over-quarter, and if I remember correctly, you know, in the last quarter you'd mentioned there's very little contribution from WINLEVI. If you could just give us some color in terms of, you know, despite the contribution, what's driving the flattish number?
Two reasons. One is the period itself, because as you know, January and February are when the insurance resets, and that's always a little lower month for the total business. That is one reason. Another is the declining sales of ABSORICA post-launch of the generics. Overall, when I look at the prescription trends of the products, I'm reasonably comfortable with what I'm seeing.
Abhay, wouldn't ABSORICA pretty much be there in the December quarter? I mean, yes, there could have been some erosion quarter-on-quarter, but wouldn't you know, the ILUMYA ramp up and WINLEVI more than made up for it?
We had certain strategies in place to, you know, have a slower decline of ABSORICA. Therefore, post-launch of generics, the decline of ABSORICA was not rapid, but it was gradual. It took a couple of quarters for the product to reach where it is today.
Understood. In terms of WINLEVI, you know, are promotions on the product still ongoing? You know, what's the feedback that you've got from doctors? You know, could this product be bigger than ILUMYA for us in the US?
I think larger than ILUMYA would be a stretch, Neha, to be very honest, because of the different price points. I mean, in terms of number of prescriptions, it is anywhere larger than ILUMYA even today. The value of prescription will be very different from what you get for ILUMYA. In dollar terms, the answer would be a no.
Okay.
To give you a sense of how the product is performing in market, I mean, acne, depending on what data set you look at, approximately 15,000 doctors are regular users of acne products, all kinds, whether it's brands or generics.
Mm.
In 5 months, 9,000 have at least used the product once. That tells you something about the interest created by the product, the impact of promotion, and the real need in the market for a new solution. Our hope is to capitalize on that and to make this into a meaningful product for the specialty business, going forward.
Understood. Kirti Ganorkar sir, on the India business, you know, we have announced another expansion. Will this allow us to continue the outperformance? Where are we adding this field force? Is there particular therapies that we're looking at adding the field force?
Sure. I think that Vijay said we are doing two things. Geographically, we are expanding, so this field force is added across a couple of BUs, certain BUs. What we see, our idea is to declutter our current portfolio, so there is a space for each of the business unit to promote the specific product to the doctors. At the same time cover the geographies which has not been covered by us in the past. That would help us. I think the objective for India business is to grow faster than the market and gain a market share.
Understood. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Damayanti Kerai from HSBC Securities and Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is regarding study of ILUMYA in psoriatic arthritis. When you are likely expecting to finish the phase III trial and file for the product?
I think we are reassessing the study timeline and study completion date. The COVID and subsequent disruption of the doctors attending their clinic, and also now some of the sites being in Russia as well as in Ukraine, have disrupted the speed of recruitment. We are recalibrating and also thinking through what is the best option for us to find replacement for sites that we are unable to support. Our objective would be to find a way to file the study at the earliest.
Okay. A related question for ILUMYA will be: Are you looking to start clinical trials in other indications, or first you'll finish this and then might look at other indications?
I think we will first of course do a much more comprehensive commercial assessment and the potential return on investment if we have to do any further development. Because we don't have significant presence in any other therapy area. We not only will have to spend significant amount of money for the studies, but also then create a field force and sustain cost for that expansion. We have to, what you call, do this carefully.
Sure. My last question is on the spend for specialty products, both in terms of marketing as well as any like R&D spend, which we might be incurring in near term. Maybe some update on how we should look at specialty spend in next one or two years.
Abhay, would you like to?
For the larger product size, I mentioned on the last call itself, say, ILUMYA or CEQUA, which we have been in market now for anywhere from three to four years. The spend is more or less optimized. When we look at growing the business without necessarily increasing the cost base or the promotional spend. On the other hand, we can look at WINLEVI, which is a product which is new to market, then I think we are going to be spending sufficiently to be able to optimize our asset there. It's a combination of the two that I would look at when I run the business.
Very broadly, with like optimized cost for ILUMYA and CEQUA and spend going towards relatively new launches, it should be on a upward trend, but more on a more measured basis. Could we-
Yeah, it will be upward, but not very significant upward.
Okay. Okay, thank you. I'll get back if necessary.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Dhamesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good evening, and thank you for taking the question. First on the R&D. We are expecting, at the midpoint of our guidance a significant jump from 5.5% to roughly 7.5%. What would be the major driver of this 200 basis points? I mean, what would be the split between maybe specialty and generic, for that 200 additional basis points?
No, I think we expect the clinical trials to pick up in this year so that we can complete or we can progress with the clinical studies rapidly. That essentially is the key reason for subdued spend last year. We significantly under-spent over our guidance last year. A key reason was under-spent on account of clinical studies that could not recruit enough patients.
Would it be fair to say that as and when it comes, it will be more lumpy in nature?
What would you mean by lumpy? Say in some
So let's say the-
Some-
Yeah, yeah. Let's say maybe, you know, till we are recalibrating our, you know, psoriatic arthritis phase III trials, you know, till we are not clear on our strategy, we will not execute it. You know, maybe next couple of quarters till we are recalibrating it might be subdued, and then once we are, you know, full throttle on the trial, you know, it can come.
You should look at annual numbers rather than looking at quarter-on-quarter. There will always be a, what you call, certain amount of lumpiness in the clinical trial spend.
Sure. Thank you. Second question, just on the, you know, logistics question on ILUMYA. I feel I'm missing something. Global ILUMYA sales, we have said it's roughly $315 million, which has grown at 81%. As far as I remember, last year, global ILUMYA sales was roughly $142 million. By that account, you know, the growth should be more than 100%. What am I missing here?
The FY22 number is the total revenue from customer contracts. That includes product sales, royalty and milestone, which was already disclosed in our Q2 FY22 results.
INR 350 includes the milestone payments?
Royalty and milestone, which we have disclosed in the Q2 FY 22 results.
Still the growth number doesn't make sense, right? I mean, 140 and 315. Why is it 81%? 81% is without milestone payment, is what you are trying to say?
This is Nimish here. Kunal, this is Nimish here. Let me explain. We, when we include the royalty and milestone on the ILUMYA in the 315 number for FY 2022, correspondingly for FY 2021 also, those equivalent numbers have been included. The base is also on a like-to-like basis.
Okay. It would be 175.
Sorry?
It would be 175 then if I have to match the growth number for FY 2021 number.
Yes. What we have given you as growth is a like-for-like comparison. Otherwise, you know, we would have ended up giving you something which is not comparable. That's why we've given you the growth number.
Okay. I think I'll have to, you know, get in touch offline to understand it. Thanks. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Krish Mehta from Enam Holdings. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions, and congratulations on the specialty performance for the year. The first question I had was on note four, subsection D, where we've taken, I think, an INR 563.5 million rupee charge in relation to restructuring our operations. Could you throw some light on which geographies we saw this restructuring and if Russia has been a key part of this and whether this is gonna be an exception that we might see in the future given the dynamic situation geopolitically?
What we disclosed in the one page of the notes is basically the Western Europe region. Certain geography restructuring is done.
Right.
Is there any other follow-up from your end, Mr. Mehta?
Oh, yeah. The follow-up to this is, the second one is on the cash position of the company. Given the net cash position we've built, how do you see the capital allocation going forward in terms of acquisitions or buybacks or like dividend payouts?
No, I don't think that we can. I mean, some of this of course we also don't know, but also I think we don't forecast those numbers.
Okay, thank you so much.
We've kept the dividend payout at 30% of the profit.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bino Pathiparampil from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, all. A lot of questions answered, just a couple of them. If I believe the Proactiv brand was acquired by Taro last quarter and it closed around somewhere in Feb. Is month or month and a half of Proactiv revenues included in Taro top line?
I beg your pardon?
Sorry. Sorry, I couldn't hear that.
No, we couldn't understand. What was the question?
Taro acquired the Proactiv brand sometime in last quarter, and I believe that closed around sometime in Feb. What I would like to know is whether there is some revenues from Proactiv which is included in Taro top line.
As we spoke with Taro, the transaction was closed at end of February, so, I mean, one month revenue.
Sir, sorry to interrupt. Your audio is not clearly audible. May we request you to speak closer to the device, please?
As you said, the Proactiv, Alchemee related acquisition got complete end of February. We have one month of revenue, but not very material, it can be built in the quarter financials.
Okay. Could you give some idea about generic REVLIMID launch? Are you expecting to launch in the second wave, which is coming in soon?
I couldn't understand the question. Again, what is it that you're trying to ask?
Generic REVLIMID launch in the U.S. Could you give some idea? Are you looking forward to launch it along with the others in the second wave of generic entry?
We have an agreement, and we haven't disclosed the terms of the agreement, but and we will follow that like many other companies. There have been different timelines set for when we can launch. It will be as per that. Once we launch, we will of course let you know.
Okay, great. You won't be able to comment whether it's this calendar year, financially or anything like that?
No. I think it is better that we don't. We can let us follow the process that is set out in the agreement that we have.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Baisiwala from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much, and good evening, everyone. A quick one on Abhay Gandhi. You got a very nice prescription, you know, support from doctors. Is it equally well supported on the insurance coverage side? You know, what happens to those prescriptions which are not covered, you know, under plans?
Sameer, as you know, it's five months since launch, as far as insurance support is concerned, it is work in progress. We are meeting with each one of them, you know, sequentially, explaining the story using the key doctors to also explain why insurance companies should cover. Yeah, it's work in progress. To the latter part of your question that what happens if the coverage is not there, and like every specialty product when we launch too, we have a co-pay program which reduces the burden from the patient, and that can get the doctors in using the product frequently and get into the habit. The number of prescriptions that we generate which, as you said, looks nice, also becomes then a factor why insurers should try and cover a product.
It's a combination of all these and definitely work in progress and an agenda for the team on the ground.
Yeah. Thanks, Abhay . Very helpful. Second question is on ILUMYA. You know, good showing with $315 million sales and including Europe, $420-odd million. Where is ILUMYA in your view in its product life cycle? Do you think it can continue to grow, you know, well over the next two to four or fived years, or how are you thinking about it?
In my head it's still in the growth phase. That's the direct answer to your question. We believe that there is still a lot more to be done for the product and a lot more headroom for the brand to do well.
Okay, excellent. Just, if I can, ask about the Alchemee acquisition by Taro. You know, if one reads about this product Proactiv, so you know, it has had quite a history and, you know, the sales has been declining over last seven, eight years. Actually it was declining even, say, 40% all the way to 2021. Is it possible for you to share your thinking, you know, what you want to do with this asset? What's the turnaround plan? You know, what's the strategic thinking behind it?
Sameer, we cannot share unless and until Taro shares with their shareholder. I mean, of course, the macro objective for all acquisition would be that it will help the business add both top line as well as bottom line, and also help grow on a consistent basis.
Okay. No, that's fair enough. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Surya Patra from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for this opportunity, sir. Sir, just from the cost front, I missed that commentary.
Mr. Patra, sorry, but your audio is not clearly audible, so may we request you to connect back more please.
Hello. Is it fine, sir?
Yes, sir, please proceed.
Yeah. Just on the cost side, sir, is it possible to have a sense? I possibly missed that in the initial remarks. The sequential kind of cost impact, what we have seen in the fourth quarter versus the previous quarter, what has led to this kind of incremental cost pressure impacting our margins? That is the first question.
The related aspect is that, sir, let's say for FY 2023, if we need to be concerned or cautious about certain cost item, then considering let's say 200 basis point kind of expansion in R&D spend side or people cost, which could also be seen because back-to-back two year of field force expansion to the tune of around 10% and even the elevated, otherwise, challenging cost scenario what we are witnessing in for all the industry. Given this, what are the reasons for the kind of sequential impact and what outlook that one should really have about cost for next year?
In terms of the cost, what I want to share is that these are normal increases as operations are normalized, which we also shared in our earlier earnings call.
Okay. Anything about next year? Are you really, I mean, are you worried about the rising cost trend what we are witnessing in all the cost line items? Anything that you think which can counter those easily to sustain the margin profile?
No, I think, hopefully we should be able to offset some of the cost increases with our ability to take price increase in the marketplace. We are not guiding for any significant change in the cost of goods at this point of time. If situation changes, then, it may happen, but as on today, that's the thinking.
Sure, sir. Sir, my second question is on the growth guidance of single high single-digit kind of growth for the full year. In that, whether we have considered REVLIMID launch as well as any M&A scope in that or it is the core existing planning business growth guidance that you have indicated?
No, I think it's after factoring all potential, what you call, price erosion as well as, new product launches in the regulated market. As well as in India, where, we have to grow, then we don't expect any significant amount of, COVID sales. To that extent, we expect India businesses to get adjusted for that growth.
Sure, sir.
It's factoring all of that.
Okay. Just last one question, sir. On the domestic business front. This 10% kind of expansion field force, is it to counter the competition which is now becoming aggressive in the post-COVID period, and the entire industry is talking about expansion of their field force? It is to focus more on the organic growth rather than the industry, which is now looking for more of M&A-led growth in the domestic market?
In my opinion, it's more like organic growth. What we are looking at, as I said earlier, is we are expanding to geographies where we had a limited presence or no presence. It's nothing to, say like we are looking at competition and then expanding. Wherever we are seeing a growth opportunities in the territories where we are expanding. Second important point is also we have a large product portfolio and, which also we need to declutter. That's why we are expanding in terms of number of MRs as well as in terms of number of business units which are promoting product to the doctors. It's more our strategy to grow in the future, yeah.
Sure, sir. Yeah. Thank you. Wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deep Master from One-Up Financial Consultants. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just really had one question on the specialty business, strategy over the medium term. Now that, you know, we've seen, you know, good initial signs of the business stabilizing and, you know, seen signs of your initial success, how are you kind of thinking about the medium term sort of growth, you know, formula, in a sense, if it, you know, if I may call it that? Your product, you know, portfolio will continue kind of growing at its own pace, but how should we think about, new additions, you know, both from your internal pipeline as well as, acquisitions? Is there a number that we could kind of expect, say, one or two every year? How could we think about it?
I wish there were those numbers. Here you are. If I look at it from a medium to long-term perspective, I think growth will be driven by a combination of organically growing the products that we have, whereas I feel that most of them are in growth phase, leaving us enough headroom to continue the growth trajectory.
Yes.
Of course, keeping your eyes open for any opportunities to look at products. Having, you know, the you know, cash in the bank, which in the readout also we have mentioned.
Mm-hmm
... helps us to look at these assets, you know, very aggressively without of course overpaying for it. We keep looking. WINLEVI is an example.
Of course.
I don't have a number in mind whether it'll be one or two or what it is.
Right. In terms of a therapy focus, you know, would derma be top of the list and then sort of it followed by ophthalmology or, you know, how could we look at maybe your therapy focus or strategy for the portfolio?
Without categorizing it as top of the list, I mean, the two segments we want to grow are, dermatology and, ophthalmology clearly, and in related oncology areas too, which are derm-focused. We'll keep looking at ways to grow the business. It's not one over the other. Idea is to try and grow both these, franchises.
Understood. Great. Thank you. All the best.
Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Kunal Dhamesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the follow-up. Just an overarching question on ILUMYA, you know, what kind of insurance coverage progress you would have made over the, let's say, last two years, you know, from the perspective of whether we have been able to reduce the step therapy, you know, kind of provision or, you know, the number of lives that are covered by the insurance, you know, which are covering ILUMYA. A broad overview of how that has panned out would be helpful.
Right from the launch, whenever I have been on these calls, I have said that access was never a big constraint for ILUMYA. Year on year, I think we have either been able to maintain or slightly improve upon the access. I think access is not really a big worry for me as far as ILUMYA is concerned, but how do you then use that access to continue to grow the brand is where I think the team and I will be focused on.
Abhay, pardon me if I'm wrong. Basically, when I see a lot of insurance formularies, I typically see, you know, ILUMYA being approved after, you know, couple of step therapy. Do you see a lot of-
Are you looking at the pharmacy side of the formulary or are you looking at the medical side of the formulary?
I would say, you know, when you get, you know, let's say Express Scripts general formulary, you know, or UnitedHealthcare basic formulary, those kind of things.
My suggestion is, look at the medical side of the formulary. This is a medical benefit product. I think there you will not find those barriers and constraints that you just spoke about.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. As there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nimish Desai for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you all of you for taking time out to join this call. If any of your questions have remained unanswered, do send them across and we will have them answered. Thank you, and have a good day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.