Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Syngene International's fourth quarter and FY 2026 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 then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Nandini Agarwal. Thank you, and over to you.
Good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining us on this call to discuss Syngene's fourth quarter and full year results for financial year 2026. To discuss the financial and business performance for the period, we have on this call today Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Syngene's Executive Chairperson, Mr. Peter Bains, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Deepak Jain, Chief Financial Officer. After the opening remarks, they will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Before we begin, I would like to caution that comments made during this conference call today will contain certain forward-looking statements and must be viewed in relation to the risks pertaining to the business.
The safe harbor clause indicated in the investor presentation also applies to this conference call. The replay of this call will be available for the next few days, and the transcript will be made available. With this, I would now turn the call over to our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bains.
Thank you, Nandini. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. Before I begin my remarks, I would like to introduce and welcome Kiran to this call in her new role as the Executive Chairperson of Syngene. We are very pleased to have Kiran's leadership and guidance at the executive level as the company transitions into its next phase of growth. Kiran, may I invite you to share your opening remarks?
Thank you, Peter. I'm pleased to be back as Executive Chairperson of Syngene International at such a pivotal point in its journey, one that presents both near-term challenges and significant long-term growth opportunities. FY 2026 closed with a muted top line growth of 3% year-on-year. However, it is important to note that Q4 delivered a strong 13% sequential growth, which reinforces our confidence that the underlying momentum of the business remains intact. The impact of Librela on our FY 2026 performance has been significant, and it is likely to continue to influence growth in FY 2027 as well.
At the same time, FY 2027 will be a transition year for Syngene, with important leadership changes already underway to position, as Peter said, this company for its next phase of growth, particularly in CDMO, biologics, and emerging AI-enabled service lines.
We at Syngene are consciously building new capabilities that move us beyond a traditional services model towards a more value-added, technology-led partnership model. Our investments in AI and digital technologies are aimed at improving speed, productivity, predictability, and scale across discovery, development, and manufacturing. These capabilities will not only drive operational efficiencies but will also help us create differentiated offerings for our global customers. Given the current geopolitical uncertainties and the near-term impact of Librela, we expect a broadly flat performance for FY 2027 while maintaining EBITDA margins in the mid-twenties through disciplined cost management and sharper operational execution.
We also expect to start FY 2027 on a muted note with H2 of FY 2027 to be meaningfully stronger than H1, with growth weighted toward the second half as new contracts ramp up and business momentum improves. We believe that FY 2027 will be a year of strategic reset and execution, with a healthy pipeline of deal flows that will translate into stronger growth from FY 2028 onwards. With those initial comments, let me hand it back to Peter for a more detailed commentary on the business performance for the year gone by. Over to you, Peter.
Thank you, Kiran, and good afternoon again, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. Let me start with the fourth quarter, where revenue from operations was INR 1,037 crore, reflecting year-on-year growth of 2% and sequential growth of 13%. Operating EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 303 crore with a margin of 29%, while reported profit after tax before exceptional items was INR 153 crore. Syngene's full year revenue from operations grew 3%, and overall performance was in line with our revised guidance.
While the overall numbers reflect the continuing impact from a single large molecule biologics client, our underlying business continued to show steady momentum. Deepak will provide more details on the financials, but I would like to highlight that Syngene generated a healthy INR 521 crore in free cash during the year, with a closing net cash balance of INR 1,800 crore, reflecting the ongoing robustness of our operating model and disciplined execution. Globally, pharmaceutical and biotechnology pipelines are increasingly shifting towards novel modalities such as peptides, antibody-drug conjugates, and oligonucleotides.
Industry estimates indicate that these advanced modalities now account for over 40% of clinical pipelines and are growing at a materially faster pace than traditional small molecules, reflecting their ability to address complex disease targets. This is driving demand for partners who can offer integrated end-to-end capabilities across these platforms. Anticipating this shift and building on our existing capabilities in biology and biotherapeutics discovery, we have invested ahead of the curve in strengthening our capabilities in these modalities. During the quarter, we commenced operations at our state-of-the-art antibody-drug conjugate discovery laboratory, which is designed to support early-stage research.
This facility complements and integrates with our existing antibody-drug conjugate development and manufacturing capabilities, enabling a seamless pathway from discovery through to scale-up and production. Turning now to our CDMO business, we are encouraged by the acceleration we are seeing in our pipeline build-up. In our Unit three biologics facility in Bengaluru, we have seen increased client interactions from large pharma and emerging biotechnology companies during the quarter. Commercial manufacturing in biologics is inherently a long cycle business, where client engagement typically begins with process research and development, followed by development work, clinical batch production, and ultimately commercial supply.
Within this framework, we are seeing encouraging interest in our integrated capabilities, supporting a healthy pipeline across different stages of the value chain. At our Bayview facility in the U.S., preparations are progressing well, and we are actively engaging with prospective customers as we move toward operationalization of the site this year. Stepping back to reflect on the full year, I will emphasize again the key structural balance we are addressing between the headwind related to Librela and the steady growth of the underlying business. Over the course of the year, we have taken several important steps to strengthen our mid and long-term positioning.
A key highlight was the extension of our long-standing partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb, now extending through to 2035. This expanded agreement broadens the scope of our collaboration across the drug development life cycle, spanning discovery, translational sciences, pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, and clinical research, and reflects the depth and confidence built up over many years in this collaboration. We have also continued to invest in enhancing our manufacturing capabilities. In our small molecule platform, we commissioned a new commercial scale facility for liquid-filled hard gelatin capsules, strengthening our oral solid dosage capability and enabling us to support increasingly complex formulations with much greater precision and reliability.
In our large molecule biologics platform, as I have touched on earlier, we've expanded our Bengaluru facility with the addition of a GMP bioconjugation suite, enabling fully integrated end-to-end manufacturing of antibody drug conjugates. This capability brings monoclonal antibody production and GMP bioconjugation into a single site, helping accelerate development timelines while complementing our existing strengths in payload and linker manufacturing.
Turning to our commitments towards Syngene's ESG and sustainability framework, this continues to be an important area of focus for Syngene, and I'm very pleased to advise that we are included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2026, placing us amongst a select group of leading companies globally and amongst the top 10 in the life sciences sector. We were also recognized by TIME Magazine and Statista as one of the world's most sustainable companies, ranking number one in India's pharma and biotechnology sector and amongst the top 20 globally. In summary, our diversified and integrated business model across research services and contract manufacturing continues to provide resilience, balance, and opportunity.
Supported by strong client relationships, investments in emerging modalities, and expanding global capabilities, we believe we are well-positioned to meet evolving customer requirements and capture opportunities across the value chain going forward. Looking ahead to the next year, and as Kiran has outlined, while we are guiding towards a broadly flat performance for the full year, we do expect Q1 to have a more pronounced adverse impact of Librela destocking. Thank you, and I will now hand over to Deepak to go through the financials in a little bit more detail.
Thank you, Peter. A very good afternoon to everyone. Let me begin by discussing the fourth quarter's performance, and then I will cover the full-year results. First, looking at revenue. Revenue from operations for the fourth quarter was INR 1,037 crores, a 2% increase year-on-year in reported terms. Revenue growth, however, was impacted by the ongoing destocking issue related to Librela, as spoken earlier as well. Turning to costs, raw material costs were at 22% of revenue in this quarter, compared to 23% in the same quarter of the previous year, driven by mix, business mix changes. Staff costs increased by about 19% year-on-year.
Other direct costs primarily comprising of power utility expenses increased 17% year-on-year due to new facilities at Bayview in the U.S. and the biologics facility in Bengaluru. Other expenses decreased by 9% year-on-year due to our cost optimization initiatives. The company saw a hedge loss of about INR 21 crores against a hedge loss of INR 4.6 crores in the same quarter of the previous year due to the difference between average and spot hedge rates. The movement in revenue and cost resulted in operating EBITDA of INR 303 crores, with a margin of 29% for the quarter versus 34% in the same quarter last year.
Depreciation increased by 5% year-on-year in line with our plans and due to the addition of capacities at the biologics manufacturing sites in Bangalore, which came operational this year. Interest expense declined by 24% as borrowing reduced in Q4 2026 compared to the same quarter last year. Other income increased by 18% compared to Q4 last year, primarily due to higher cash and equivalent balances. Overall, profit after tax but before exceptional items stood at INR 153 crores, down 16% year-on-year. As you know, the government of India has recently notified the Four Labour Codes consolidation, consolidating the 29 existing labor laws.
During the quarter, we reassessed the impact of the new Labour Codes, which resulted in a gratuity remeasurement credit of INR 20 crores, net of tax. Moreover, expenses of about INR 25 crores net of tax were recognized under exceptional items related to termination benefits extended to employees in accordance with an approved policy. Adjusted for these exceptional items, reported profit after tax was INR 148 crores, down 19% year-on-year. The normalized effective tax rate for the quarter was 24.2% as compared to 23.7% in the same quarter last year due to change in profit mix across the units. Moving to CapEx.
We continue to invest in building capabilities and technologies that enable us to become an integrated solution provider for our clients. During the fourth quarter, we invested $10 million, around 50% in research services, primarily across capability builds and contractual obligations and dedicated centers, along with regular maintenance CapEx. Nearly 40% of the CapEx was in CDMO business. The remaining CapEx was towards digitization, automation, and common infrastructure. We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet. After meeting our CapEx spends for the quarter, we have a net cash balance of INR 1,800 crores as of 31st of March 2026. Turning to the full year performance.
Reported revenue from operations increased by 3% year-on-year. Raw material cost was at 25% of revenue in FY 2026 compared to 26% last year, driven by business mix changes. Staff cost increased by 14%. Our direct costs, primarily comprising of power and utilities, increased by 6%. Other operating costs increased by 6%. Operating EBITDA margin stood at 25% for FY 2026. Profit after tax, before exceptional items, was INR 380 crores, down 20% year-on-year. As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in technology platforms and enhancements, digitization and automation, and strengthen our presence in new modalities like peptides, ADCs to build on our strengths. With that, I suggest we open up for questions.
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 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. We will take our first question from the line of Kunal Dhamesha from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. The first question is on the impact from Librela. If you could, you know, quantify, let's say, if we remove Librela both from FY 2025 and FY 2026, then how would our FY 2026 growth and profitability look like?
Kunal, let me take that. If we remove Librela from both the years, we have growth as we've always called out. Underlying growth is in single digits though, and the impact of Librela is a culmination of what you see in the numbers.
With Librela also we have grown 3%, right?
Yes. Yes.
Like with Librela impact, right?
Yes.
The single digit would be mid single digit or high single digit?
It'll be a little higher single digits please. Yes. We don't break that down right now.
Okay. In terms of profitability, would it have improved between FY 2025 and 2026 without Librela?
I mean, the overall profitability has declined, and the impact of Librela is a factor into that as well, plus the business mix changes. That's one. Secondly, our facilities have come online as well, right? The Bangalore facility has come online. That has impacted the profitability as well this year.
Okay. Let's say from the FY 2027 guidance perspective of flat revenue, what is being built for Librela supply? Are we expecting it to move to zero in that guidance or we expecting a gradual decline?
We expect, as Peter alluded a little bit, that the coming quarters, Q1 and Q2 , will have almost no Librela. There is some minor Librela volumes towards the end of the year, but that's about it. Most of the Librela impact will be done in this first two quarters. Librela, as of now, we have no incremental revenue plans for Librela beyond 0ne small amount in the last quarter.
Sure. In terms of the current quarter, with costs related to Bayview facility fully baked in. Because we last time had suggested that the hiring is ongoing. Is it fully baked in Q4 or there is more cost which can come? If you could also highlight the total drag from both these facility, unit three and Bayview, on the current P&L, you know, on a quarterly basis, that would be helpful.
Kunal, we are on the unit three, we've capitalized it as we said at the beginning of the first quarter of FY 2026. The impact of therefore is of the people, etc , and all the costs are definitely coming into the P&L. The impact of Bayview is only partially coming into the P&L to the extent that's not capitalized. We have not yet fully capitalized the facility, so we will come and update you about Bayview's capitalization and the plans forward.
It would be baked into the mid 20s, EBITDA margin, guidance, right?
Yes. Yes.
For FY 2027.
Yes.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I have more question. I'll join back with you. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Surya Patra from PhillipCapital India. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Congrats for the positive surprise number what you delivered in the fourth quarter. Sir, we just wanted to understand, compared to the guidance what we had given in the third quarter, where we have been saying that there would be kind of underperformance both in terms of revenue as well as on the margin front. This quarter turns to be a kind of a strongly positive quarter to that guidance. What really caused this positive surprise in terms of operating performance?
Surya, we did guide towards a full year number. Obviously, that had an implication of what the quarter looks like. We were able to churn out improved revenue for the quarter, but by only a marginal amount, right? Not a major change. Because our full year numbers have come more or less in line with what we had said in terms of our currency forecast or guidance that we'd given. If you look at margins, for sure, you know, we continue to be more efficient and be more frugal on our costs.
That's what's led to an improved margin versus what we wanted it to be, what we guided it to be. Therefore, margins have shown an improvement, and we'll continue to hold the margins as we've guided.
Okay. Okay. That is helpful, sir. See, I just wanted to also understand whether any revenue booking from the clinical trial activities or services, whether that is visible in this quarter. If not, any outlook that we are separately giving for the clinical trials activities that we have added as a new vertical for FY 2027.
Clinical trials, Surya, if you remember, we said we have always been present in clinical trials, right? What we guided in quarter two was a win that we had on a global trial. Right now, the global trial was gonna pan out a few years as what we had said as well. Therefore, what you do see in this year's quarter and coming years as well, that there will be clinical trial revenue that will bake into the numbers. It's an ongoing business. We definitely focusing more on that business. The revenue continues to flow this quarter and in the coming year.
Okay. Sir, regards, since it is the fourth quarter and closure of the year, so can you share what is the split between revenue split between the CDMO and CRO? If you can also give some color that the way that you're looking this, these two businesses for next year. While the strategy is what you have guided, but since the, since you have mentioned also the environment in the CDMO space is improving, so what outlook that you should be baking in for CRO as well as CDMO separately?
Yeah. In terms of this year we had about, as I said, typically 2/3, 1/3. 2/3 towards the CRO business, 1/3 towards the CDMO business. That mix, as what we had seen until Q3, continues to be the mix that we're seeing in Q4 as well. Broadly, 2/3, 1/3. We are anticipating that to be directionally in line for even the next year. You would continue the split to be almost similar. There will be minor changes as we continue to evolve through the year. Broadly, 2/3, 1/3 is what you can take for your modeling purposes for the moment. We will keep updating as we evolve through the.
I would like to add to what Deepak just said. In the Q4, there was a slide that said that 41% came from CDMO and 59% came from the research services business. That's an indication.
Okay. Oh, that is really helpful. Just one more thing. See the capabilities that we have been building, either in terms of the peptide ADC or hard gelatin capsules, along with the capacities also that we have acquired or built up. Is there any gestation period that we should consider, ma'am, about or, like, is there any gestation period then only we will see, start seeing kind of a revenue or earning implication out of those?
Surya, I'll start and.
Yeah.
I'll draw in Peter 's views as well on this. Typically, when we have these capacities that we build up on the CDMO space physically, right? You saw that a bit in unit three as well. You know, before we take the site, we gotta get it into qualification stages. We gotta do some trial batches runs, and then we get into regulatory approval structures, right? Typically, they do take, you know, 12, 18, 24 months, depending upon the nature of the site, the state of readiness of the site itself, and we bought it as well. You would expect, you know. You did see what happened in unit three. It took us almost 18 odd months to get it operational and capitalize the site.
We would expect the initial trial runs, et cetera, on Bayview to also go through and then, you know, in the coming year, we should start seeing some engineering batches, et cetera, come through. Capitalizations once we get the regulatory approvals, which we can't really comment on the timeline right now.
Surya, let me add to Deepak's comments, and speak a little bit about, you know, the capability enhancements in the areas like hard gel capsules and antibody-drug conjugates and peptides. You know, where we are building new capabilities and we're building capabilities that strengthen existing capabilities. We would expect here to look to, for this to contribute towards the pipeline build that Kiran referred to in her opening remarks and contribute toward, you know, the exit in 2027 on a, on a growth trajectory, and then looking to 2028 to see more sustained growth as we clear the Librela impact at the end of 2027.
Sure. Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for these comments. Wish you all the best for future quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kunal Randeria from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir. The question is on Section 232 tariffs, where around 100% levy will be on patented pharma products and the ingredients. Don't you think this can slow down future order contracts for CDMO players?
Kunal, our assessment of the tariff impact on Syngene is it will be negligible, you know, as both a service industry and in the product supplies that we make and supply to our customers. We are not anticipating any material effect of tariffs on Syngene's business.
Great, sir. You're saying even after this announcement, you are still getting RFPs from your prospective customers?
Yes, we are.
Great. Great. Okay. The second question is on your contract with Bristol Myers that was extended to till 2035. It seems to be a bit more expansive, a bit more extensive than last time. Is the wallet size bigger?
I mean, again, this is a very important component of our, of our business. It's our largest collaborator and a unique construct, you know, 28 years now in terms of legacy and looking forward now a 10-year future horizon. I think it's really. The time horizon enables strategic thinking and, of course, if we look at the market outside and developments in these new modalities that we've discussed and, of course, the implications and evolution of AI into discovery and development, it really allows the parties, Bristol Myers Squibb and Syngene, to think strategically, and that includes some of the expansions that we discussed in opening remarks in areas that we will look to collaborate.
It really provides that strategic framework so that we can plan in the mid and the longer term, to support Bristol Myers Squibb, you know, as they evolve their pipelines and portfolios. That, that is really the real strength of the extension of the collaboration, is providing that now decade horizon going forward so that Syngene, you know, can really look to support Bristol's strategic outlook as it builds its pipeline and its portfolio going forward.
Right. That obviously should translate into higher revenues than what you have received from Bristol in the past. Yeah.
So can I'll.
According to some indications for that.
I mean, Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we can comment in any short-term horizon there. Obviously, if we look at the history of this relationship over the course of years, it has grown, but this is already a substantial business in scale and, you know, growth, it will not be linear in that sense. I think it will grow around U.S. inflation at some level. You know, it, its expansion going forward will be determined by the nature of, you know, these, the strategic outlook and the new areas of expansion and opportunity.
Right. Great. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Avnish Burman from Vaikarya Change LLP . Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I had a question around the cost increases that you might be witnessing because of the Middle East conflict. Could be raw material, could be utility pricing. I just wanted some qualitative color on how your contracts are structured, both on the CRO side and on the CDMO side. How easy is it to pass on these cost increases to the customers or how difficult it is, as the case may be? Thank you.
Sort of typically, these are different contracts with different clients. The nature of the contracts depends on the need of what we are trying to service, and also depends on the nature of the molecule in conversation or the support that is required, right? It's not one size fits all. It also depends upon the conversation of the long-term horizon of the contract that we get into. It's not a, it's not a straightforward answer of saying, are all contracts which have elements of cost that we pass through or not. I think it depends upon the nature of the conversation and the services that we are providing. I don't think there's a straight answer to your question, Avnish.
Okay. Again, I mean, if you just bifurcate your business into CRO and CDMO, is your answer true for both these businesses or is there one business where it's relatively easy to have those kind of conversations with the clients?
Let me maybe also add in here. I mean, the implications of what's happened, you know, are evident as everyone can see. I'll start by saying that there've been no disruptions to the continuity of service and supplies on Syngene's ongoing business. That has been, you know, navigated by the team very successfully, and obviously in conjunction with our partners. Of course, there have been some cost increases that we've seen in some areas, and some of them, you know, as you well know, that there's been a little bits of spikes in some of the prices. There are two things here. We don't know how long this will go on and to what extent it may continue.
We are obviously re-engineering distribution and logistics, and we're obviously looking at costs, and we're of course talking to our customers and collaborators. As Deepak said, you know, I think there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this, and it will be customer by customer and contract by contract. They are also looking at, you know, how we re-engineer the logistics and the supply chains, and they are, of course, also aware of some of the cost implications there. I don't think there's any material impact that we're considering at this point in time. You know, we'll have to wait and see how this resolves going forward.
Okay. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shyam Srinivasan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Just between January and now you're reporting in April, you know, we had cut our EBITDA margin guidance for the full year to 22%-23%. We delivered 25%, right? Now when we look at our guidance for next year, it seems to suggest flat margins. I'm just a little confused with respect to the EBITDA margin guidance. I think on revenue we have probably met full year guidance for fiscal 2025, 2026. Just the push and pulls because we just cut guidance and then now we actually beat our guidance.
Is there something that was supposed to happen that got postponed into, say, fiscal 2027 that has led to this cost change? Was there a mix issue? If you could explain just what happened in two months.
There are two parts to it, Shyam. One, for sure, you know, the product mix is a big factor of what made the big swing, you know, into our margin structures, right? There was an assumption of what our product mix would be and the cost structures related to that product mix in terms of raw materials, the people that will get engaged and so on and so forth. That went through a bit of a shift, and that was a positive shift in that direction. Obviously, there's some bit of also cost that's gone into the exceptional items as well that's also led to that change. Two major contributors right now.
One is the product mix change or the services that we had anticipated or the revenue mix that we had anticipated went through a change and some bit of the cost went into exception items as well.
Got it. Deepak, just from a forward-looking perspective, right, is it getting difficult for you to estimate corporate margins? Has something changed? You know, do we still have the aspiration to go towards the high 20s, maybe 30% margins? Do you think that overall. You know, I'm not asking for a specific year, is there a path to going back or you now moved to a slightly lower trajectory of what margins can be?
Shyam, two things. One, for sure, we've guided you towards the mid-20s even for the next year, as Kiran mentioned. That's definitely taking into consideration, you know, how we expect the utilization curve on our sites that we have bought in recent past that's going to come up. More importantly, we've always mentioned, and we've said this in the past as well, as the utilization curves on the sites improve, we do expect the margin profile to improve as well. Aspirationally, for sure, we definitely want to improve the margins, as of now, we're guiding only for the year and we're guiding it towards the mid-20s as called out earlier.
Got it. My last question, just going back now on revenue. When we look at FY 2024 revenue was INR 418 million, FY 2025 was INR 430, now we are INR 419 in 2026, and we are guiding for a flat, so INR 419. Right? Just making that number up, last one. I'm just saying, when does it get higher, right? Is there, you know, what needs to kind of get us back on a growth path on revenue? I know we have done a lot of investments ahead of time, but, you know, what could be the major triggers for a revenue growth to also restart? Thank you.
Shyam, let me respond first and then Deepak can come in. You know, getting back to more sustainable growth and to higher growth levels is clearly the direction that we're looking to build Syngene. The Librela headwinds have clearly had material impacts last year, 2026, and as we've outlined, will continue to have effects through 2027, and those are now absorbed in the guidance framework that Kiran outlined. We would expect to end 2027, you know, on a growth trajectory, and the Librela effect will then have washed out and in a way, 2027 represents a sort of resetting of the baseline.
With the investments that we've made in the modalities and the, and the capabilities that we're building, you know, and with the maturation of the pipelines that we're developing, you know, on the commercial side, we would expect to see those begin to play through and, you know, look beyond 2027 for a more sustainable and higher growth trajectory.
Great. Thank you. All the best.
Shyam.
Maybe I should add to what Peter and Deepak have just said. We are really focusing also on our CDMO business, which we think will give us more, you know, aggressive and sustainable growth.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Harith Ahamed from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the partnership with Zoetis. Zoetis has a follow-on molecule to Librela. It's called Lenivia. I was just wondering if Syngene has any role in the supply chain for that product, given Zoetis already has a European approval and they're expecting a U.S. approval shortly.
Let me take that. At this point we do not have any participation in the follow-on molecule going forward.
I mean, just to add on to that is we did do some bit of clinical work for them, on the other molecule. In terms of ongoing commercial production, we're in conversation, but nothing beyond that right now.
Understood. My second question is on the research services side of the business. Firstly, if you could give some color on the mix within research services today. You talked about in one of your slides about discovery services, translation services, and clinical trials. Then, just trying to understand the mix as well as, you know, some of the macro headwinds that you called out in terms of biotech funding, how we should think about the impact of these challenges on each of these verticals
Harith, we don't call out, you know, quantitatively the split. Of course, chemistry, which is the legacy foundation of Syngene, is the biggest part of the business. Biology and now biotherapeutics where, you know, we believe Syngene is very well-placed in India as a lead player, you know, supports that. As we've said, you know, our translation and clinical services are at a lower starting point. You know, we are seeing some encouraging opportunities here for growth. It is, I think the balance, the large balance is chemistry and supported biology and biotherapeutics with translation and clinical research, you know, a smaller part.
You know, going forward, we would expect all three legs of that stool and discovery services, you know, to look to growth. You know, where I think we can see growth in all three cylinders or all three legs of that stool. You know, I think in biotherapeutics there's a, you know, very clear opportunity of differentiated capability, differentiated services playing into a high growth part of the contract research market. Of course, as we've discussed in previous calls, the translation and clinical research business is, you know, looking at significant expansion, you know, going forward over the coming years as clinical trials pick up in India and as the translational capability plays into discovery capabilities more broadly.
Harith, does that answer.
Thank you. I know one last question. Yeah. I'll get back with you. Thanks.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Alankar Garude from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Peter , in your discussions with clients, how are they assessing the impact of AI on drug discovery? How are you gearing up for any shifts in the business model as well as activity levels?
Sure, Alankar. Obviously a very important question. I mean, I think it is very clear to everybody that the implications of AI in discovery, in development and in manufacturing, you know, will be profound. You know, I'm not sure what the timeline is and how it will land, but already, you know, we are seeing rapid changes in the evolution. I think Kiran touched on this in her opening remarks, the application of AI to improve timelines, which are obviously critical, of critical importance to all our clients and collaborators. You know, to improving predictability through modeling.
You know, to reduce risk through enhanced predictability and fundamentally to enhance innovation, you know, with AI applications that can look to find new targets, you know, and to look to enhance validation of these targets. You know, in development and in clinical development, we're already seeing applications of AI that will help, you know, all the aspects of the clinical side in patient recruitment, in data management, and so forth. In translational sciences, you know, as these elements enhance the predictability of drug discovery, we'll see applications of AI in there.
Of course, in manufacturing, we're already working with digital twins to enable us to enhance our ability to manage and optimize manufacturing. Alankar, I think it is clear that there will be profound implications of AI. From Syngene's side, again, we've been investing in, you know, new capabilities there. We have a team, you know, of AI scientists who are looking at the application of a lgorithms and so forth to enhance our service offerings and to create value to our customers. With our customer base, we're working in this, in this arena with many companies.
The shorter answer is it is going to change, and profoundly discovery, development, and manufacturing, and that Syngene is moving and accelerating its capabilities to enhance differentiated service value creation to our customers in that field. Kiran, you may want to add something in on this.
No, I think, what you said is adequate because I think these are, you know, important times and in, points of inflection, but I think what you have said is, fairly well covered.
Got it. That's very helpful, Peter. Kiran, ma'am, the second question for you. You have now come into an executive role at Syngene after a long time. There is also a new team led by Siddharth, Abhijit, coming in from Biocon Biologics. Can you take us through what prompted these decisions, and did you at any point in time evaluate an external candidate?
First and foremost, I think, this plan has been in place for some time. In fact, Peter has also been part of taking this decision because I think it was very clear that after Jonathan departed, you know, Peter played a very important role to play the role of an interim CEO till Siddharth could join. As you know it, we did believe that we needed a very, there was a strong rationale that we needed a full-time, you know, the full-time presence of a CEO in India because I think it's very important to getting into CDMO operational excellence was very important, where the CEO has to have a very close, you know, oversight on these kind of businesses.
Because Siddharth is someone who has played a very important role at Biocon, who understands the CDMO business because Biocon is very much involved in that kind of manufacturing operations, it was something that we felt was the right thing to do. Abhijit, of course, also comes with a very strong experience of commercial and business development capabilities, where he has actually built a number of partnerships, a number of collaborations. As you know, both Abhijit and Siddharth have played a very important role in building various partnerships, whether it is the Viatris partnership, whether it was the Pfizer partnership, whether it was the Cuban partnership and many others. I think we are very, very comfort.
They are both very, very experienced and comfortable with building partnerships and collaborations. We believe that this is really a services business. It's about building these partnerships and relationships. We didn't have a very formal commercial structure which we felt would actually help the business going forward. I'm, you know, someone who has worked with them very closely for over many, many years. Obviously, I'm happy to be back to, you know, take Syngene through this very exciting time. This is a team I'm very familiar with. I'm very confident that we will rebuild and re-reset and rebuild the Syngene model in all the particular areas that we spoke about.
You know, Peter has done an excellent job of being that interim CEO, I think, we now believe that Syngene is in very good hands.
Sure. That's very helpful, Kiran, ma'am. With your permission, one final question. Deepak, you spoke about the cost efficiency measures helping margins. There is also a termination charge. Can you just take us through some of these cost rationalization initiatives and where are we in this journey?
As called out in the notes as well, Alankar, this is termination benefits of rebalancing the organization, right? If you see the people cost, you will see the cost going up, but that was the investments that we made in the people at the beginning of the year. There was some rebalancing in some parts of the organizations that we needed to do. It is a impact that we've taken into the financials as termination benefits, and that's what you see as the cost implication, right? I really won't comment beyond that right now in terms of how it's gonna play out in the future. The margin structure is what we've commented upon, and we're gonna probably hold on to the margin guidance that we've given.
Fair enough. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thanks you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. You can get in touch with Syngene team for any further questions. On behalf of Syngene International, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.