Alembic Pharmaceuticals eyes 50% turnover from US market by 2020

Oncology oral solids unit inaugurated, with filings from site to commence in 6-12 months

The Vadodara-based Alembic Pharmaceuticals, which inaugurated its oncology oral solids facility in Panelav on Friday, is betting on the segment to drive its US sales in the medium term. As such, the company expects US sales to contribute to 50 per cent of its revenues by 2020.

At present, generic exports account for nearly 50 per cent of its turnover, which stood at Rs 2,985.91 crore in 2016-17. Pranav Amin, joint managing director, Alembic Pharmaceuticals said that by 2020 the contribution of exports, including active pharmaceutical ingredients or bulk drug exports, to its overall turnover would be around 60-65 per cent.

"In the next two to three years, the share of international sales in our turnover should be around 60 per cent, while domestic formulations would contribute to about 40 per cent. US will have the biggest share in exports with around 50 per cent of our overall turnover coming from the US by 2020," he told Business Standard.

As a growth strategy, the company has aggressively started investing in the international generics market with an increased focus on abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA) and drug master file (DMF) filings. Apart from the US, where it now has a front-end, it is also making filings across Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Brazil. At present, Alembic has 60 ANDA approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). Out of this, the firm has received 52 final approvals and 8 tentative ones.

For the next five years, the company is targeting segments like oncology, dermatology and injectables for the US market to add more breadth to its US portfolio. In fact, 80 per cent of its research and development (R&D) spend is towards the US market. It is spending around 14 per cent of its sales on R&D activities- one of the highest in percentage terms in the industry so far.

Amin said that the company expects the oncology injectables plant to be coming onstream within the next few months. "For oncology oral solids and injectables, we have invested around Rs 300 crore or so," he adds. This is part of its capital expenditure plan of Rs 1,000 crore over the next few years.

As for the oral solids plant, filings from the facility is likely to commence over the next six to twelve months, and approvals would start coming in by 2020.