Sun Pharma open to acquisition in specialty drugs
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, country’s largest drugmaker by market share, said it is open to exploring acquisitions in the global specialty portfolio as it closed financial year 2023-24 (FY24) with a strong net cash position of $2.4 billion.
In the 2023-24 annual report, Chairman and Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi said: “Sun Pharma had a strong net cash position of approximately $2.4 billion, which enables us to explore inorganic opportunities, including but not limited to strengthening our global specialty portfolio.”
He added that the firm made critical hires in several functions, and the focus has been to improve in-house clinical development capabilities for which the firm is building a clinical organisation, globalising specialty assets beyond the US, and deepening business development capabilities.
The specialty research and development (R&D) spend has continued to increase to strengthen the innovation pipeline, rising to $148 million in FY24 compared to $65 million in FY20. It accounted for 78 per cent of the total R&D increase during the period. The contribution of global specialty increased from 7 per cent of consolidated revenues in FY19 to 18 per cent in FY24. In FY24, the firm’s R&D spend stood at $32 billion or 6.7 percent of overall sales.
“During the year, we filed approximately 250 formulation dossiers globally. In FY24, the company took steps to improve study enrolment for our global specialty pipeline candidates, including creating a clinical organisation within Sun and hiring key talent to lead the same. Sun Pharma also continues to scout for external R&D assets to strengthen the pipeline. R&D spending is expected to increase as clinical trials for specialty products gain traction,” Shanghvi said. Some of the key products in Sun Pharma’s specialty portfolio include Ilumya (psoriasis drug), Winlevi (acne drug), Cequa (ophthalmic drug for dry eye disease), Odomzo (locally advanced basal cell carcinoma) and Levulan (keratosis of face and scalp).
Sun Pharma’s specialty R&D pipeline has six candidates undergoing clinical trials.