Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Sun Pharma's Q1 FY 2027 financial results conference call. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Dr. Abhishek Sharma, Vice President and Head of 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 2027 earnings call. I am Abhishek from the Sun Pharma investor relations team. We hope you have received the Q1 financials, the press release, and the earnings presentation that was sent out earlier in the day. These are also available on our website. We have with us Mr. Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman, Mr. Kirti Ganorkar, Managing Director, Mr. Aalok Shanghvi, Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Jayashree Satagopan, CFO, and Mr. Richard Ascroft, CEO North America. Today, the team will provide an update on financial performance and business highlights for the quarter, pipeline updates, and respond to any queries that you may have. We will refer to the consolidated financials during management comments. The call recording and call transcript will also be put up on our website shortly.
We have recently noted that Organon has received the shareholder approval for the acquisition by Sun. The acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of remaining customary closing conditions and is on track to close by early 2027. Since Organon remains a publicly listed company, we will not be taking any questions today regarding Organon's business performance. The discussion today might include certain forward-looking statements, these must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that our business faces. You are 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, Ms. Jayashree Satagopan.
Welcome and thank you for joining us for the earnings call after the announcement of financial results for the first quarter of FY 2027. The financials are already with you. As usual, we will look at the key consolidated financials now. During the first quarter of FY 2027, sales were at INR 151,836 million, registering a growth of 10.1% versus Q1 financial year FY 2026. Gross margin was at 80.5% for the quarter, higher than the same period last year, mainly on account of better product mix. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 44,177 million, an increase of 2.7% over Q1 last year. EBITDA margins came in at 28.9%, while EBITDA margins were slightly lower. Please note that Q1 FY 2026 had some benefit from lenalidomide sales. Adjusted for that, EBITDA margins were higher year-on-year. Forex gain for the quarter was INR 1,220 million, lower than Q1 last year.
Reported net profit after tax for Q1 FY 2027 was INR 28,948 million, while adjusted net profit for the quarter was INR 30,894 million. EPS for the quarter was INR 12.10 per share. Exceptional items for Q1 FY 2027 include a charge of INR 1,670 million towards Organon's acquisition-related cost. There would be additional charges on this account in the subsequent quarters. Since some of the costs are not yet fully crystallized, we are not in a position to guide to a full estimate at this point in time. However, these charges are somewhat back-ended, with a substantial part being accrued at closing. Effective tax rate for the quarter was at 27.8%, versus 24.3% in Q1 FY 2026. Sun had a significantly lower tax rate in India, which is now getting exhausted. With varying tax rates in our different jurisdictions, our ETR has moved up.
Going forward, until Organon's closing, we expect the tax rate to be in a similar range as in Q1. Balance sheet of Sun continues to be strong, with net cash of $3.4 billion at the consolidated level. With this, I hand over the call to Kirti, who will share the performance of our global innovative medicines business and India business.
Thank you, Jayashree. I shall first provide you an update on global innovative medicines. In Q1 FY 2027, our innovative medicine sales were up 12.8% to reach $351 million. This business accounted for 21.9% of Sun's sales for the quarter. The performance in innovative medicine business continues to be driven by growth across U.S. and ex-U.S. markets and across products, notably ILUMYA, Odomzo and CEQUA. During the quarter, the company shared the updated results from the locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma expansion cohort from the pivotal trial of UNLOXCYT at the 2026 ASCO annual meeting. The updated data showed a durable benefit for patients, with more than one in four achieving complete tumor response and a generally manageable safety profile. Coming to India business. Sales of India formulations were INR 54,749 million for the quarter, recording a growth of 16%.
India sales accounted for 36.1% of our total consolidated sales for the quarter. During the quarter, the company became the number two generic semaglutide injectable player. Sun Pharma is the only company in India offering semaglutide auto-injector, and the device has received positive feedback from healthcare professionals for enabling smooth initiation and significantly reducing needle phobia. Sun Pharma is ranked number one and holds 8.5% market share in the over INR 2,527 billion Indian pharmaceutical market as per PharmaTrac MAT, June 2026. Corresponding market share for the previous period was 8.2%. For the quarter ending June 2026, we grew higher than IPM. We have done well across all major represented therapy areas. Sun Pharma's 30.4% PharmaTrac growth was driven primarily by strong volume expansion and new product launches. Sun's volume growth of 5.4% for the quarter compares favorably to IPM volume growth of 2%.
As per the SMSRC March, June 2026 report, we continue to be the number one company based on prescription volumes. Sun Pharma is also ranked number one by prescription with 12 different doctor categories. For Q1 FY 2027, the company launched five new products in India. I hand over the call to Rick for the update on the U.S. business.
Thank you, Kirti. Let me share the performance highlights for our U.S. business. Overall, the U.S. business reported sales of $427 million for the quarter, declining by 9.7%. Our innovative medicines portfolio continued to grow, and this was offset by lower sales in the generic business, largely due to lenalidomide erosion, but also due to additional competition in certain products. QOQ decline in the U.S. is due to a decline in generics and also some seasonality in LEVULAN. The U.S. accounted for 26.6% of consolidated sales for the quarter. We also launched five generic products in the U.S. Let me provide some updates on the LEQSELVI and Odomzo launches. We're seeing good momentum in LEQSELVI with prescriptions and the number of prescribers expanding each month.
In the month of June, we surpassed 1,000 prescribers, and we also delivered our strongest month since launch, demonstrating increased adoption and growing confidence in the brand. Odomzo was launched earlier this year. The early feedback from healthcare professionals, including oncologists and dermatologists, continues to be positive, really highlighting the balance of durable efficacy and safety resonating exceptionally well, largely due to Odomzo's differentiated mechanism of action. Similar to LEQSELVI, we continue to see month-over-month growth as more cancer centers and integrated health systems add Odomzo to their formularies. I hand the call over to Aalok for updates on our other businesses.
Thank you, Rick. I will provide an update on the performance highlights of our other businesses. Our formulations revenues in emerging markets were $311 million, up by 4.2% over quarter one last year. Emerging markets accounted for 19.4% of the total consolidated revenue for the first quarter. While branded generics have continued to grow, innovative medicines has been an important driver for growth in emerging markets, with ILUMYA doing well across several markets such as Romania and Brazil. Formulation revenues in the rest of the world for the quarter were $218 million, marginally lower than quarter one last year. Rest of the world markets accounted for approximately 13.6% of consolidated revenue. Recently, we have received approvals to manufacture and market the generic version of semaglutide injection in both Brazil and South Africa for the treatment of adults with Type 2 diabetes.
We have already launched the product in South Africa, and the launch in Brazil through our partner is expected shortly. I will now hand over to Mr. Dilip Shanghvi for updates on R&D.
Thank you, Aalok. Let me take you through our R&D initiatives. We continue to invest in building an R&D pipeline for both global generics and innovative medicine businesses. Consolidated investments towards R&D for Q1 FY 2027 stand at INR 8,264 million, or 5.4% of sales. Innovative R&D accounted for 30% of our total R&D spend. Recently, our partner, Philogen, has resubmitted Nidlegy for marketing authorization in Europe. The updated data for resubmission is due to be published soon in a major journal. Coming to the Organon transaction, the process of filing for regulatory approvals in various markets have been completed. We have already received approvals in certain countries. Shareholders of Organon have also approved the transaction recently. We expect the acquisition to be completed in Q4 of financial year 2027, and an integration management office has been working on day- one preparedness.
That's the end of our prepared remarks. Operator, you can ask for questions and answers.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then 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. Your first question comes from the line of Amey Chalke with JM. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for taking my question, and congrats on a good set of numbers. My first question is on specialty medicine. There seems to be some deceleration of growth in this segment. Is it possible for the management to give color on the reasons for slower growth in one view?
I think our focus is on innovative business, and here we would like the innovative business to continue to grow at a healthy rate. We're expecting healthy growth to continue for innovative business in U.S., driven by new launches, as you know, UNLOXCYT and ILUMYA is also doing well. We don't provide any product-wise revenue and growth at this moment.
Any product in this quarter, particularly where you saw some impact which could have affected the growth this quarter?
That's what I said.
Kirti, I can-
Yeah, go ahead.
Sure. Kirti, I can comment on the U.S. As I had shared in my comments, we do see seasonality with LEVULAN, our product for actinic keratosis. As I had shared previously, we did see that seasonality this past quarter. We would expect to see similar next quarter.
Sure. That's helpful. Second question I have on semaglutide. It is quite visible that sema could become a meaningful revenue driver for us, both in India and ROW. In light of this, I just wanted to understand our preparedness of the supply chain, how much supply we have been able to secure in terms of pens for the full year of FY 2027. Thank you so much. I will join.
Sure. Yeah, semaglutide now, as we are selling in India from March 26 onwards. South Africa, we got approval last week, and as Aalok said, we already commercialized the product. Now we are preparing for the launch in Brazil through our partners. I am hopeful that we will meet the market demand. We are well prepared for this launch. We have API manufactured in-house formulation also we do in-house, and we are tied up with all the people who are supplying the components for the device. I think we are well prepared to commercialize this opportunity in South Africa and Brazil. India, as I said already, we are the number two player among all generic players.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Damayanti Kerai with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on gross margin. Very strong trend, and this is despite the loss of lenalidomide sales. In your opening remarks, you indicated product mix is the main factor to drive gross margin. If you can elaborate a bit, like which regions or which segments are really driving the growth, and are these levels sustainable? Thank you.
Okay. As I was mentioning, we have seen a growth mainly driven by product mix. We've seen good growth in our branded generics business as well as our innovative medicines business. Both of these have resulted in a healthier margin profile for the quarter.
On a year-on-year basis, does contribution went up from both branded generics and innovative medicines at the gross profit level?
The share of business to the overall revenues have gone up, and therefore you would see the reflection also coming in the gross margins.
My second question is on your R&D spend. We understand there is variability quarter-on-quarter, but how should we look at the spend on a full- year basis? You have given the pipeline as well and indicated 30% for innovative medicine. Where is the rest of 70% spend happening? That's my second question.
I think it's a time gap between what you call stopping some of the trials and starting some of the new indication trials. I think, don't look at the R&D spend this quarter. We've already guided for the annual number, and I think we should be able to meet those numbers.
Okay. The remaining 70% spend is towards?
That would be generics as well as products for India.
Okay. I have more questions. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kunal Dhamesha with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. First one for Rick on LEQSELVI and UNLOXCYT. While it has received a good response from the prescriber, how is the access aspect of these two molecules moving on? Let's say, where would you want to be versus where you are currently, and how long this journey would take from improving the formulary access?
Yeah, great question. Maybe I'll start with LEQSELVI, because the access is different given the different kinds of products that we have. From a payer access, which is what's most important for LEQSELVI, we continue to grow. In fact, we added an important plan just this past quarter and improved the overall access. We do already, for LEQSELVI, now have the majority of the covered lives available to us. UNLOXCYT's a bit different because it's primarily administered in the healthcare setting. There, we're very focused on formulary access at the cancer centers as well as the large integrated delivery networks within the U.S. Similarly, we have progressed quite rapidly, actually, in terms of getting the product added on those formularies. I think really in recognition of the differentiation that the clinicians see, it's a different mechanism of action; you have this durable efficacy.
What's quite interesting about UNLOXCYT is you don't see the typical immune-mediated adverse events, particularly the Grade 4 and 5, which is why the product is being added to formularies.
Rick, just for understanding, for UNLOXCYT, who is the decision- maker? Is it the doctor who makes the decision, or is it the cancer center which will have a few PD-1 or PD-L1s on their formularies, and then the doctor needs to prescribe from that list? How does it work?
It's a bit of a combination. In most of the centers, there is a formulary, but that formulary is heavily influenced by the clinicians and what products they want to use on the formulary. We're working directly with the administrators of those institutions as well as oncologists so they can ensure they have access to the product.
Again, this would be Medicare Part B heavy, right? Because this is generally seen in aged individuals.
It is. It's a Medicare Part B product.
Sure. We have-
We also have-- I should add, though- we also have good commercial coverage as well. Yes, due to the age of the population, they tend to be Medicare beneficiaries. Because the product's infused, it is a Part B, as in boy product.
Sure. Second question is for ma'am. On other expenses, I think we had suggested that other expenses would come down, and it has come down on a sequential basis. From here on, how should we look at it for the rest of the year, especially with the lens of now UNLOXCYT and LEQSELVI; probably the launch costs are behind us. Yeah, how should the progression happen in the other expenses?
The other expenses have two, three components in it. One obviously is the launch cost that we had indicated early on last year for these two products, which is LEQSELVI and UNLOXCYT. During the year, as we mentioned, the products in the initial years, as they go through commercialization, there would still be certain costs, and we need to continue to incur that. The second one we should also be aware is that there is a foreign element that is also contributing to the expenses last year to this year when we translate. I think that's something that we need to bear in mind. In the current quarter, just as you would have heard us a little while ago, the R&D expenses have tracked a bit lower. That will get normalized in the coming quarters.
I think one needs to look into all these three aspects as we analyze other expenditure.
Sure, ma'am.
I might just add a bit from the U.S. perspective, since we're in the middle of launches. I think it's a bit of a misnomer to think there's a one-time expense on launch and then that expense goes away. It's a sustained investment to ensure you have a successful launch.
Sure. I think the understanding was like some part of the launch expense would continue, which is what you are referring to, right?
Correct.
That's correct.
Perfect. Lastly, on the overall top-line growth guidance, we had suggested for high single-digit growth versus this quarter; we have done almost 11% kind of growth. Do you see an upside here from the full- year perspective, or will we stick to the high single-digit growth guidance as of now?
I think we should stick on to the high single-digit growth for the full year. Also, we should be a little mindful of the exchange-related impact that will come across all the line items in the P&L.
That should be overall positive, right? The translation effect would be positive on the revenue growth?
Right. It would be positive.
So then is it quarter by quarter?
The current quarter, obviously, it is positive, but we have to see how it translates for the rest of the year. Therefore, I would suggest that we should look at holding on to the overall guideline that we have shared with you earlier on.
Sure. I have more questions. I'll join back the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Neha Manpuria with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead. Neha, ma'am, we are not able to hear you. Neha, ma'am, we are not getting any audio from your line.
Okay. What did you say?
Ma'am, we could hear you now; the line was breaking a lot.
Okay, let me dial back.
Ma'am, we can hear you now.
We hear you now.
Okay. Thank you so much. Rick, on the U.S. generic business, there seems to be a very sharp step down in revenues, just roughly if I look at the numbers. I know you did mention some additional competition in certain products. Is that the only reason for the sharp decline in the U.S.? Is this the new base for the U.S. business or U.S. generic business?
Yeah. The largest part of the decline is lenalidomide.
No, I mean quarter-on-quarter.
Slight decline based on the base business due to competition on a few products, but year-over-year, it's definitely lenalidomide.
All right. How the U.S. might look from here. I know we've been launching products, but we really haven't seen too much traction there. When do you think we start seeing the U.S. business turn the corner and actually contribute more meaningfully to growth?
I think we do continue to see both LEQSELVI and UNLOXCYT contributing to our results. As you know, we don't give product-wise specific targets. As I said before, I think if you look at the inputs of number of prescribers, you look at the market research, and what we're hearing back from clinicians, all of this gives us very strong confidence in both of those two products.
Oh, no, sorry. I was talking about the U.S. generic business here, Rick. Sorry.
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we just launched five new products, which of course will contribute to growth this past quarter, towards the end of the quarter, and we have new launches this quarter as well.
Neha, we are not guiding to the growth for specifically.
Understood. That's clear, Abhishek. My second question is on the emerging market business. I think in the last two quarters, if I were to look at the USD growth, they were pretty strong, like high teens, 20%. This quarter seems to be 4%. Is there any timing issue in supplies or anything that I need to be cognizant of in the quarter?
I think emerging markets, I would characterize the impact as a combination of both the geopolitical issues and difficult macroeconomic conditions in certain countries.
Do you think these are being more competitive than maybe-
Sorry to interrupt. Neha, ma'am, your audio is breaking once again.
Yes. Would it be more this quarter, or do you still think you are getting
Ma'am, the audio is still not coming clearly. If you can repeat the question once again.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Ma'am, you can rejoin the queue once again. Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants: you may press star and then one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Shashank Krishnakumar with Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is again on the U.S. generic piece, more from a strategy stand. Most of our global generic peers as well, when they've made this transition from generics to specialty, some part of their specialty R&D has also been funded by the U.S. generic piece. I think in our case it's the strong domestic franchise, which is doing a bit of that heavy lifting. Given that we're still continuing to invest in generic R&D, we have 100+ ANDAs. Can this business again go back to a stage where we can start generating cash flows, and potentially this business could also contribute to some of our future growth drivers? Just trying to understand how we are looking at it.
I understand we're in the middle of an adverse regulatory cycle. How are you looking at a sustainable turnaround in this business? When can we sort of expect that?
I think what you're saying because we split the businesses into different geographies. Many of the products that we also registered for the U.S. are also sold in other geographies, like approval of semaglutide in all the geographies. It's because that's being developed for the U.S. I don't think that when I look at our overall investment in R&D, we're not able to leverage this currently in the U.S. for many products. Otherwise, I think we are creating a basket of products which will help us continue to grow globally.
Got it, sir. Second one on LEQSELVI. I think we mentioned in the past that we could potentially look at other indications which other JAK inhibitors are also targeting. I think incrementally we're also seeing data. I think one of our competitors has seen positive data in vitiligo as well. When are we planning to sort of also try and target some of these other indications and is the addressable market size also within these indications as meaningful as alopecia is, for instance? How are you looking at attacking some of those indications with LEQSELVI?
I think LEQSELVI is a very, what I would call, good product in terms of its ability to significantly down-regulate some of the important cytokines which are involved in multiple autoimmune conditions. We've to prioritize and identify areas where we can differentiate and register the product, where, when we come to the market, it's not very competitive. Whenever we initiate any study, I think we will keep that updated, and we will keep people updated about the progress of the disease. Both LEQSELVI as well as UNLOXCYT are potentially important opportunities for us to expand the current indications.
Got it, sir. That's helpful. I'll join back. Thank you.
I might just add, we are conducting investigator-initiated trials in the U.S. , and those of course can inform what Mr. Shanghvi just said.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bino Pathiparampil with Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening and good morning. Just on the specialty business, the revenues. We launched two big products in the last six to nine months, but if I look at the global specialty revenue over the last three quarters, it has been flat or even slightly coming down. These two are pretty big product launches. What am I missing here? Is that the kind of ramp-up to expect?
Rick, you're responding or?
Yeah, I'm happy to respond. Both of these products are still pretty early in their growth curves, including an oncology product that just launched a few months ago. I think, give it time to be able to see the larger contribution. We do continue to see good growth across the rest of our portfolio. I think for this quarter, as we mentioned, at least with one of our products, we do have seasonality, which is having a bit of an impact on the growth rates. Other than that, I think we have seen generally pretty strong growth out of the rest of the portfolio.
Understood. Just a repetition question on the generic part of the business. To one participant, I believe you mentioned that there is some cyclicality in the business which led to a down quarter compared to the March quarter. At the same time, you also mentioned to somebody else that there were extra competition in some products. Are both these reasons, or is one a more important reason?
Let me take that, Rick. I think, Bino, there are two different things we're talking about. The seasonality was on a QOQ basis for LEVULAN .
Yeah.
Not to do with generics. The YOY comparison was basically the additional competition factor that we gave.
Understood. There is no cyclicality in the generic side of the business?
No.
Okay. Thank you. Sorry, if I can add one bookkeeping question. Like the other expenses have come down QOQ, the depreciation amortization cost has also come down. Is there any particular.
The last portion of your question was not clear, Bino, sir. If you can repeat it once again.
Yeah. Is my voice clear now?
Yes, sir. This is much better. Thank you.
Okay. Like the other expenses have come down QOQ compared to the March quarter, the depreciation and amortization cost have also come down compared to the March quarter. Is there any particular reason, and what can we expect going forward?
There is no specific reason for this.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Saion Mukherjee with Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, on the domestic market, we have seen good growth in the recent past. If you can explain what's driving that, and also on semaglutide, various reasons are being forwarded for some sort of a slowdown after the initial spurt that we have seen. How are you seeing that market and opportunity, and the dynamics in India versus some of the other emerging markets that you are launching? How do you read that? Is that very different? And if you can give any comments based on the experience so far.
Sure. I think I will answer the first question. You're talking about the growth of the India business. I think I cannot pinpoint only to one thing which is driving the growth. It's like all the business units are doing good, and we are also focusing on generating on new prescriptions and brand building. The entire part of the business and all the therapy areas are doing well. You also know we did a field force expansion in the past, and that is also helping us to grow the business in Tier 2, Tier 3 . All put together, I think all of these things are helping us to grow better than the market currently. Coming to your second question on semaglutide. As we said in our readout also, we have become number two among the generic companies.
Here also our idea is to continuously grow above the market and gain market share. I don't know what you are referring to slowdown. I think there were some articles about semaglutide generics inventory being increased in the market. As far as Sun is concerned, I think we are doing well, both on a prescription side and also on the value side, and the unit growth also, yeah. We see this is a very exciting and important opportunity, and also we have a novel treatment which is available in a format which is an auto-injector, and which is also a very unique format in terms of use by the patients. There are a lot of doctors and patient, they are finding it quite user-friendly.
Right, sir. Any comment on the emerging market opportunity? Any dynamics there?
Aalok?
Emerging market.
What is the question?
The question was on semaglutide because it got approval in Brazil, South Africa.
Yeah.
How are you seeing the opportunity in emerging markets?
I mean, to be honest, I think a little premature to be able to comment because in this scenario there's other generic companies don't get approval, the opportunity is certainly much more attractive, but I highly doubt that to be the case. Our focus will be in ensuring in getting the product to the market and doing the best launch possible.
Okay. Just one other question on UNLOXCYT and LEQSELVI launches. It appears from your comment that initial traction is good. You're getting formulary access as per expectations. In terms of the revenue contribution, it might not be very significant. For both these products, what's the timeline for really seeing traction in revenues? These are two different products. If you can guide us in terms of how long you think it takes for really the traction on revenues to come through.
Yeah. We don't provide product-wise guidance that way. I would just say we expect to continue to see growth based on all of the indicators that we have today, whether that's increasing access, whether that's increasing the prescriber base, whether that's increasing repeat prescriptions. We do anticipate we'll continue to grow. In terms of giving you a specific timeline, we're not in a position to do that at this time.
Is it like one product, like LEQSELVI or UNLOXCYT, is the dynamics different in terms of how quickly the traction can evolve, or both of them just kind of more or less it would take equal amount of time to get the traction?
I think they're quite different products, and they are for quite specific patients as well, right? There is a training component, there is a patient identification component, and then there's an adding two new treatment protocols component. I would say they're similar in terms of the level of differentiation and what we've seen from the market research. For instance, on LEQSELVI, when we do market research physicians, they clearly see the benefit of the speed and the overall efficacy versus our competitors from a market research perspective, and similar with UNLOXCYT, particularly in terms of both the durable efficacy. We mentioned that we had shared new data just at ASCO this past June, as well as the safety profile. All of those give us good reason to believe that the growth will continue.
Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants: you may press star and then one to ask a question. Your next question comes from the line of Shyam Srinivasan with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening. Thank you for taking my question. Just the first one on the domestic piece again, 16% growth. If you could kind of disaggregate that into just the split of the growth in volume and new product and price as well, please.
Sure. Yeah, I think as I already told you in the readout and also here, it means we are growing higher than the market in terms of volume and new products. If you bisect the growth into price growth, volume-led growth, and new product growth. 60% of our growth is coming from volume and new products, which is quite healthy, which also indicates that we are generating new prescriptions in the marketplace, and which is way ahead of the IPM growth in terms of volume.
Perfect, sir. Just want to also get your view on what is happening to the industry or your theory on. We have seen a step-up in growth for the industry as well. Right? It's not only on new products, but we're also seeing the base business volume growth also improve. Any theory that you have? I know it's probably just maybe one or two quarters now, but your sense of what is driving higher industry growth as well?
I saw, particularly in the month of June, the industry growth was much higher than what it used to be usually. Very difficult to point out where this growth is coming from and whether it's sustainable going forward.
Got it. Helpful, sir. Just a second question on the comment about the tax rate, the ETR being higher. Ma'am, is it now like standalone Sun 28%, 29% is what we are assuming? Sorry, I missed the absolute percentage.
We don't give standalone numbers. What I discussed about was primarily the consolidated number for Sun.
Given that we have presence in various geographies and the tax rates in each of these geographies could be different, the overall ETR for this quarter was about 27.8%, and we expect this range to sort of continue for some time until we have the Organon transaction completed. Our endeavor obviously would be to look for areas to optimize the ETR, we should look at this as a range.
Helpful, yeah. Thank you, and all the best.
Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Surya Narayan Patra with PhillipCapital India Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the global innovative business. If you can talk about the progress that you are witnessing on the global innovative business outside of the U.S., what is the current share in the overall mix currently, and what is likely to be, given your aggressive activities that is visible by launching the specialty products outside of the U.S.?
Yeah, we don't provide the breakup, Surya, for the innovative business by geography.
Okay. The point that I was trying to drive is, we have seen some moderation in the growth. I was thinking that with the newer contribution or newer revenue stream contributing from the non-U.S. markets, the growth should have been better. That is why.
Both U.S. as well as international markets continue to grow for us. We are not seeing a challenge in terms of overall innovative medicine growth. Yeah, I think
Sure. Okay. My second point is about, let's say our pipeline, the innovative medicine pipeline. The MM-II, where we are talking about looking for a partnership. Any thought process here? Just curious about it that, okay, if we are having a late arthritis portfolio, successful in the various markets, any reason that we are thinking it for the MM-II for partnership?
As you know, MM-II is a potential product which can be used for orthopedic pain, that is knee joints, basically.
Yeah.
These are the products which will be prescribed by orthopedicians and maybe rheumatologists: that's the kind of segment of doctors who can prescribe the product. Today, if you see our U.S. business, we don't have any commercial presence to cover these doctors. That's why we thought that it is good for us to out-license to a partner who has a good presence in this therapeutic area.
Okay, sure. Just one observation from my side, sir. See, in the last few quarters, what we have observed is that the people cost is rising ahead of the revenue growth what we have been reporting. In the recent past also, we had mentioned that we have no major plan of workforce expansion or something like that. What is leading to this kind of a enhanced growth for employee cost versus our revenue growth?
Let me put it in a slightly different way.
There are two or three elements that actually impact the people cost or the salaries and comp and ben. One is the year-on-year increment that you get to see in the first quarter of every financial year.
If you do a year-on-year, there is an annual increment that normally comes in an impact.
Yeah.
The second one is also relating to additional field force that we have to employ, especially for our two new launches, which was not there last year, but it is there in the current year. Similarly, we have also seen some field force increase that has happened in some of the other markets other than the U.S. as well, where we are promoting our innovative medicine products. The third one is also a bit of the Forex impact that would also show as a higher cost this year. If one were to look at it, the reality is, there is going to be a merit increase that happens. The additional field force, especially for innovative medicines, which is a necessity for growing the new products, and Forex is not in our hands, depends on how the market moves.
Sure. Yeah. That was helpful, ma'am. Thank you. Thanks a lot. It's on the list.
Sure.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participant:, you may press star and then one to ask a question. Your next question comes from the line of Foram Parekh with BOB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the ROW market. In USD terms, we see it constant around $218 million for the second quarter in a row. I assume this could be because of the Middle East war. Until the sustenance of this war, can we expect this kind of run rate to continue for the upcoming quarters?
Yeah, Foram, ROW is flat in dollar terms. We do not give forward guidance for any particular. You should look at our overall revenue growth guidance that we have given for the year for the company.
My second question is on the emerging market. Here in the opening remarks, it was said that innovative products are doing good globally. However, our growth rate has come down to 4%. Can we assume pricing pressure in the generic business? If you can give some color on the generic business of the emerging market.
Yeah. I think I would say a large majority of the emerging markets business is branded generics, and while there is some element of pricing pressure, I would not say that would be the driving force.
Sure. Last question, if I may add. The last one is on the domestic side. I see that the diabetes therapy growth rate in the IPM has increased to about 15% post the GLP launches. Any color here would be helpful that how we should see the diabetes therapy growth once the GLP sales is in the base. For the next year, how should we see the diabetes therapy growing in the IPM?
I think how it will grow in IPM is difficult to comment, but what I can say, there are a lot of new products being launched in the last two, three years. Other than GLP-1, I am saying, like SGLT2 inhibitors. In the diabetes as an area, there are a good number of new products being launched, and as individual products and also in combination. As you know, the incidence of diabetes in India is also increasing. All of these factors are helping the market to grow. How much it will continue to grow in IPM in the coming quarter is very difficult to comment.
Sure, no problem. Thank you. That's helpful. Those were my questions.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Abdulkader Puranwala with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question from my end. In terms of the outlay what we had previously talked about on the two innovative medicines for the U.S. market in terms of the marketing costs? When we are planning that kind of an outlay, typically, what is the kind of payback or the breakeven when we are budgeting when we outlay that kind of spending in our numbers?
We specifically don't comment on this. However, as we look into any asset when we want to do an in-licensing, all these costs are factored in part of the overall business case.
Okay, sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vishal Manchanda with Systematix. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, everyone. One, I have a question on Enoxaparin. Can you provide what share Enoxaparin would have in terms of the various PD-L1 inhibitors among the new patients that get into the therapy?
I'm not in a position to do that right now. Partially because, from a claims data perspective, the claims data is lagged, it's always going to be a few months behind what is reality.
Okay. Second, on Odomzo, are we seeing any supply issues? Because what we see is a decline in the prescription on a QOQ and YOY basis. Any supply issues there?
No, I don't believe that's accurate in terms of year-over-year as well as Q-over-Q performance for Odomzo.
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next follow-up question comes from Kunal Dhamesha with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity again. One for Kirti on the domestic market. Would you internally be tracking prescription data for some of the key therapies?
Of course. Yeah, we'll have prescription data. That's what we said in SMSRC: we are number one in 12 therapy areas. We track both IQVIA, IVAX, and the prescription data from various agencies, yeah.
Based on that prescription data and the value growth you would have in some of the key therapies, are those kind of aligning very closely in recent months?
No, I can talk on Sun Pharma. That's what I would say, I just alluded to the volume growth. The way you should look at it is if there is a volume growth, there is a prescription growth which is coming. Our volume growth and the new prescriptions coming from the new product is 60% of our total growth. 40% from volume, 20% from new product. That clearly indicates that we are growing in prescriptions . Yeah.
Kunal, we look at this variance, what you're suggesting, and for the last few months, it's been within the normal bounds.
Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Dr. Abhishek Sharma for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us at this late hour. If you have any questions which remain unanswered, you can reach out to the investor relations team. We'll be happy to take your questions. Thank you once again, and good night to all of you.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Sun Pharma, that concludes this conference. Thank you, everyone, for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.