“Don’t know whether to call it a risk, but it is an unknown that could develop into a risk, and that is the tariff. We will know better as time will come about what it means and what we can do,” Israeli said over an earning call on Wednesday. “It’s not necessarily bad, it can also create an opportunity. It very much depends on what will be our relative situation to Chinese players or others.”
The Hyderabad-based drug maker, which announced its first-quarter earnings, is betting big on generic version of Novo Nordisk’s weight loss molecule semaglutide – that it plans to launch in 87 countries in 2026 – as a future growth driver.
“Our levers for the future consist of double-digit growth of the main business and then on top of it the success of semaglutide, which is very important to us, business development and our ability to optimise our resources,” Israeli said in response to ET’s query.
“We are planning to launch semaglutide in 87 countries as the patent in the relevant country will allow us… We have some countries where there is no active patent as we speak, and in those we can launch. In the other countries, we need to wait for the patent expiration – for example Brazil or India – in which the patent goes on till March 2026. We are absolutely ready to launch on day 1 (post patent expiry) in each one of these markets,” he said.
The company which is among the frontrunners for GLP-1 drugs is looking at launching 26 other products in the space over the next decade.“We have 26 products (all peptides) in the GLP1 pipeline and will be launched over the next decade, according to the patent situation,” said Israeli.On Wednesday, the company reported consolidated revenue for the first quarter at Rs 8,545 crore, an 11% increase from a year ago, mainly on account of contributions from its acquired consumer healthcare portfolio in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and sustained performance in branded markets. Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 1,418 crore, up 2% y-o-y.
Israeli said an ongoing litigation over semaglutide with innovator company Novo Nordisk in India is not likely to hamper its planned product launches.
The company’s global generics revenue in Q1FY26 stood at Rs 7,562 crore, a growth of 10% year-on-year.
However, revenue from North America–one of its key markets–declined 11% y-o-y to Rs 3,412 crore due to increased price erosion in select products, including lenalidomide. Its Europe revenue stood at Rs 1,274 crore, up 142% on account of NRT portfolio acquisition.
The company’s India and emerging markets business grew 11% and 17% respectively.
The company’s EBITDA margin for the first quarter stood at 26.7%.
