THE QUIET MOVER

A SHARP FOCUS ON BIOSIMILARS HAS PROPELLED LOW-PROFILE AUROBINDO PHARMA TO SECOND PLACE IN THE INDIAN PHARMA PECKING ORDER, WHERE IT HAS STAYED DESPITE THE PANDEMIC. THE JOURNEY TO NO. 1, THOUGH, WILL BE TOUGHER

- NEETU CHANDRA SHARMA

NOWHERE IS INDIA'S EPITHET-pharmacy of the world-more apt than in the case of some big pharmaceutical companies. One such company is Aurobindo Pharma, which has steadily grown over the past 10 years to become the second-biggest Indian pharma company behind only Sun Pharma. Its consolidated revenues grew from ₹4,550.56 crore in FY12 to ₹23,366.55 crore in FY22. Ten years ago, it was placed sixth (see table 'Coming from Behind").

So, how did the Hyderabad headquartered company reach such stratified air? Aurobindo has adopted a strategy of focussing on its forte of biosimilars (medicines that are highly similar to their branded reference medicines) along with gradually advancing in speciality pharmaceuticals (large, injectable, protein-based molecules, or small molecules used to treat complex conditions such as cancer and hepatitis C or common chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma). It is making steady progress in developing biosimilars in the oncology and immunology segments, even as it has products in the pipeline for rheumatology, dermatology, ophthalmology and respiratory disease treatments, says K. Nithyananda Reddy, Co-founder and Vice Chairman. "We are targeting a market opportunity of over $50 billion. We have a mix of biosimilar products in the pipeline," he says.

As other manufacturers also crowd the biosimilars space, Aurobindo is looking at diversifying towards the speciality disease business. And its export markets are crucial to its strategy of diversifying towards high-margin speciality generic (non-branded) formulations and the speciality diseases segment.