Glenmark to focus on specialty drugs to beat tackle price erosion in US

Drug maker draws $300 mn capex plan and higher R&D spend, focuses on differentiated dosage forms and inlicensing of complex drugs

Glenmark is developing specialty respiratory and dermatology products as a part of its long-term growth strategy.

The drug maker released its strategic blueprint for the next decade on Monday outlining an increased spending towards research and development and $300 million in capex, focus on differentiated dosage forms and inlicensing of complex drugs.

Glenmark earns about 60 per cent of the revenue from domestic and the US market.  Increasingly however it is seeing a pressure on their revenue and margins because of competition and distribution channel consolidation. The push towards local manufacturing in countries like Russia is another challenge.

Glenmark chairperson  Glenn Saldanha said, “We have three specialty respiratory products are under clinical trials and  these will be filed for approval in the US in the next few years.”  These are in addition to seven new molecules under research in dermatology, oncology and respiratory segments.

Similarly the company is working on inhalers and new dosage forms to achieve better higher growth in the US, he said. The company's US revenue doubled from Rs 1,213 crore to Rs 2,420 crore in five years till FY16.

R&D spend will increase from around 9-10 per cent at present to 11 per cent of sales, company's global chief financial officer P Ganesh said.

Glenmark will spend around $100 million in the next three years and all the funding will be through internal accruals. There is no plan to raise capital. “The US market will be main growth driver for us. We are targeting to file and launch 20 products annually in the US. Overall we expect  revenue to grow at CAGR of 15-20 per cent,” he said.