The company, however, may consider acquiring over-the-counter (OTC) portfolios or individual brands and products for its India-focused consumer healthcare business, which crossed the strategic revenue milestone of Rs 1,000 crore in FY25. It may also evaluate targets in global complex hospital generics.
Piramal explained that rivals that already have a prescription business would be willing to pay more for an acquisition target as they would get immediate synergies. “So, the amount that they can afford to pay versus us…we wouldn’t have that,” she said.
Piramal Pharma sold its domestic formulation business to Abbott for $3.8 billion in 2010.
On its future growth strategy, the chairperson said the company will continue to focus on organic brownfield expansion in the drug development and manufacturing service business, or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO).
The company is looking at capex of $100-125 million, she said.Talking about the current global headwinds, Piramal said near-term macroeconomic uncertainty and uneven improvement in biotech funding is leading to customers taking more time to decide and place orders, thus leading to lower capacity utilisation in the overseas CDMO sites.However, the company’s India sites are running at a healthy utilisation level, she said. “In many of our overseas sites, we have recently made investments and hence their utilisation will gradually pick up as we fill them with new orders,” she added.
About 69% of Piramal Pharma’s revenue comes from regulated markets like the US, UK, Europe and Japan.
On overall future product pipeline, Piramal said there are 31 products in phase 3 trial, 30 in phase 2, and 177 in phase 1.
The company posted 8% year-on-year growth in revenue from operations for the fourth quarter of FY25 ended March and 12% growth for the full fiscal, driven primarily by CDMO business, especially from on-patent commercial manufacturing.
Its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio improved to 2.7x in FY25 versus 5.6x in FY23.
Commenting on President Donald Trump’s executive order to companies in the US to cut drug prices, Piramal said: “There is a lot of uncertainty because it is not yet clear how things will be implemented.”
However, despite short-term uncertainty and people prolonging decision making, Piramal Pharma continues to hold to its FY30 revenue target of $2 billion, she said.
The company has received approval and commercialisation rights for neoatricon—a cardiovascular drug for neonates, infants and children—in several markets including the UK, EU and Norway. “Before that, people would have to dilute the adult formulation that could lead to overdosing or under-dosing because babies are tiny,” Piramal said.
Currently, there are no approved dopamine hydrochloride formulations specifically indicated for use in neonates, infants, or children, with off-label use remaining a common practice. This product aims to address that gap by ensuring precise dosing, and minimising preparation time in neonatal and paediatric intensive care units.
“We want to bring in products like this which are differentiated but serve complex medical needs,” Piramal said.
The company is focussing on innovation and, for the first time, 54% of its CDMO business is innovation related work.
“We have seen strong growth in differentiated offerings and we are seeing good demand in overseas sites. However, there is short-term uncertainty and people are prolonging decision making,” Piramal said.
