‘Will consider US manufacturing if there’s strategic value’

NEW DELHI: Torrent Pharma, flagship of the Ahmedabad based Torrent Group, plans to drive growth by focusing on innovation to address “unmet needs in chronic therapies” and by expanding into highgrowth segments. The company, which holds market leadership in the vitamins category with its Rs 500-crore brand Shelcal (plus variants), and has cardiac drug Nikoran with sales of Rs 245-crore in its portfolio, will continue to build on these core strengths to sustain its growth trajectory, while foraying into newer segments, including the weightloss therapies.Besides India, Brazil is tipped to become its biggest market, even as the company is open to explore manufacturing opportunities in the US if it offers “long-term strategic value”, Aman Mehta, managing director of the over Rs 11,500-crore company, told TOI .Excerpts:It’s been an eventful year for you with one of the biggest acquisitions. What are the next steps and how would the integration with JB Chem pan out?There are four large-scale ones and other small brand deals and assets that we’ve acquired. In the last five years, JB Chem is the second-largest acquisition, and the largest in absolute value. The acquisition (spree) started with Elder Pharma in 2014, then Unichem in 2017, then Curatio in 2022 and JB in 2025. We have recently received the CCI and Sebi approval, subject to voluntary modifications.

The JB team has been doing a great job, having built the company over the last five years, adding a lot of high-growth areas. Further, the CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) business has done quite well. It’s a very attractive segment with a long-term potential — it’ll take us some time to understand the space because we don’t operate in it. So reinvesting, adding more customers, new products, that’s something we would focus on.How are you financing the deal?It’ll all be debt financed. The fund-raise will be undertaken through global banks, with the quantum ranging over Rs 12,000 crore. For acquiring 46.4% KKR stake, the outgo will be around 12,000 crore. And for the open offer, additional funds may be required, depending on subscription.Will Torrent continue with its acquisition-driven strategy?I think the first and foremost priority right now will be to integrate JB into and with our organisation. That process generally takes one to two years. Within that period, it’s not advisable to take any additional large bets. An acquisition-led approach will continue to remain a priority for us, especially in Indian market. So if an opportunity does materialise in the near future, we would certainly be keen to pursue it.How do you view the US market amid geopolitical concerns? Do you think that domestic companies would realign businesses?I think the situation is still evolving. We only have a marketing front-end in the US right now. We haven’t made any decisions yet, but if there’s strategic value in US manufacturing, we’ll consider it. Also, there are segments within manufacturing which are not necessarily prone to the usual pricing pressure. And complex products for example, which have relatively low competition. So there are segments where one can look at having a base in the US.What are your plans regarding growing your share in the US market?The US accounts for about 10-11% of our revenue, around $150 million, growing at 25% this year. We do aim for a larger share in the US market, but these investments take time. Besides India, Brazil and Germany are significant markets, with Brazil potentially surpassing the US soon because it’s on a very steady growth path. Brazil was chosen to be one of the key areas of expansion back in the late ’90s because of our first-mover advantage, we are leveraging it today.India’s pharma industry has so far focused largely on generics. What would be the focus for Torrent?Our inherent strength has been in the chronic disease segment, and there is still a fairly large unmet need in chronic diseases, especially in the Indian population. I think the ability to invest today in innovation is much higher than it was before, and as people see more successes, more people will get drawn to taking risks. Over the next five to 10 years, we will see a lot more innovation coming from India than we’ve ever seen. For Torrent, the future pipeline will remain first-to-market launches in our key markets — India and Brazil. About 70% of these would be in the chronic domain.