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In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Lupin’s leadership, including CEO Vinita Gupta, MD Nilesh Gupta, and Executive Director Ramesh Swaminathan, discussed the company’s growth outlook for the second half of FY25, anticipating strong double-digit growth. Vinita Gupta highlighted India’s robust market performance, while Nilesh Gupta shared insights on the diabetes segment's recovery post-patent expiry. The US business remains a key focus for the company, with new product launches and a steady strategy to manage competition.
Swaminathan emphasised sustained profitability and the company’s target core margin of 23-25%. Here is the verbatim transcript of the interview. Vinita : We are very optimistic on the India growth momentum, which is very strong in Q2, 40% above the market.
In the first half of the year, we grew 30% of the market, which has been a goal. Very pleased that all our therapy areas, cardiovascular, diabetes, respiratory, and GI have been well above the market. Also, areas that have even challenged in the past, like diabetes, due to loss of exclusivity, have bounced back at above market growth.
Very pleased with the growth in India, as well as continued momentum going forward based on both a strong portfolio of innovative products as well as reach through a 10,000 people sales force. Q: I wanted to know about the diabetic molecule India, the patent expiry that is over now. I just wanted a clarification that front? Nilesh : Some of the bigger ones are gone.
We still have one which will come up at the end of the fiscal, which is the last of the exclusivities running out. After that, we would expect to be able to ramp up the growth even more. We will still end up at single digit growth this year, because we will lose out something in that last quarter.
But then from next year, we should start seeing stronger growth in diabetes also, again. Read Here | Lupin beats Q2 estimates with 74% profit surge, margin expansion Q: Let us just talk about the US business, it saw a bit of a decline when you look at it sequentially, though it's still in the range which the company had guided last time as well. But what was the impact on a sequential basis coming in for the US business, and was there still any price erosion coming in on a Suprep front? Nilesh : The US businesses is going strong for us and in the bigger sense, I think this is the complex generic pipeline coming to market.
You see the year-on-year growth. Yes, you see a little bit of adjustment sequentially, but complex generics are just a very large part of what we do today. 40% of the business comes from complex generics in the US, and that is backed on the inhalation products that we brought to market.
Very proud that we got both an MDI and a DPI to market. But I will let Vinita add more color. Vinita : While the business sequentially was a little bit down, it was primarily due to one phasing of launches.
Mirabegron was launched in Q1. So you see some of the phasing, and we expected competition on products like Suprep and Doxycycline that have shown into Q2 numbers. Having said that, profitability quarter over quarter, as well as year over year, has been very strong.
We are very pleased to continue to improve profitability of the US business, while sustaining the inline portfolio and tackling additional competition on products that have been exclusive. Q: The update on the latest on terms of the litigation that is going for Mirabegron, what is the latest on that front? Vinita : So the case has been remanded back to the district court by the Federal Circuit, so it's back to the same court that already ruled in favour of generics. We will wait to see the outcome of the district court over the next year or so, but we continue to build on a position on Mirabegron.
Q: We are waiting out for this result coming out on this front. But does that impact the FY25 outlook, because you had given the range of around $225 to $200 million as something in that range for the US dollar revenue, what are we expecting on that front? Vinita : We continue to maintain that $220-230 million a quarter range going forward for the US business, on count of both the inline products, strong respiratory franchise, Mirabegron ramp up. While I will see some competition on products like Albuterol, already started seeing on Suprep and Doxycycline.
We also have other new product launches that we have planned, some four or five launches in the second half. The generic Pred Forte where we had competitive generic therapy (CGT) exclusivity that launched in October. We hope to launch couple of injectable drugs before the end of the fiscal, Dalbavancin, and hopefully glucagon as well.
Therefore, it has been exciting new product launch trajectory for our US business. Q: A word on Albuterol as well, because sequentially, a bit of a decline in terms of market share. So what are we watching out for and what was the impact this time in terms of the loss of market share in Albuterol? Vinita : We haven't seen any material loss of share.
There is always some phasing based on the prescription generation and the trade. Our Albuterol revenues units and share has been fairly stable at the 20% plus. There may be some marginal change, quarter over quarter, month over month, but overall, there has not been any material shift.
Having said that, we expect some competition going impact of Amphastar that has recently entered going forward so and expect to offset that with the inline products, as well as new products that are ramping up. Q: What are we expecting in terms of revenue growth outlook for the second half of the year, FY26, as well? In terms of margins, are these levels, we are looking at something that is sustainable? Swaminathan : The growth trajectory will continue. Essentially, we would expect to grow a good double digit in the second half as well we vis-à-vis the previous year.
As far as the margins are concerned, you would appreciate that it has been growing quarter-on-quarter the last six quarters, success of quarter, so to speak. However, this is on the back of a host of good launches, tremendous focus on costs, and on every aspect of the P&L. In terms of gross margins, that's gone up because of the buoyancy on the top line and a host of lines below that, the productivity of people at the factory level, productivity at the sales force, at the R&D level, and host of other things.
All of this has borne good fruit, and that is there to for people to witness. We believe that the core margin should be 23-25% irrespective of launches, and that is what we are trying to aim to. At the beginning of the year, we said that it should be around the 20.
50% for the full year, or 21% and this time around, given the buoyancy, we believe that we should be between 22% and 23% for the full year, considered. Also Read | Lupin says USFDA issues three observations for its Pithampur facility.
