Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (NYSE:RDY) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Saion Mukherjee: Okay. Thanks. And my second question would be, how do you see the growth in emerging markets in the years ahead, particularly with respect to China and some of the key markets like Brazil, if you can talk about your outlook for 2025 and 2026?

Erez Israeli: So it will continue to grow. It will continue to grow in double digits. China looks good. We are now consistently submitting 14, 15 products a year. So this is likely to continue. And also, we got some interesting approvals. So overall in constant currency, I believe that we are in a good shape. Obviously, there is a risk of ForEx. This remained the same. We have certain level of protection, but obviously, if it will come, it may offset it. But overall, it looks good.

Saion Mukherjee: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Balaji Prasad from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi everyone. This is [indiscernible] on for Balaji. Thanks for taking our questions. Can you hear me?

Erez Israeli: Yes, please.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Great. So we see you launched four new products in the U.S. during the quarter. Could you just provide a little bit more detail on these launches? And my second question is if you could provide a bit more detail on the CRL issue to the BLA for biosimilar rituximab. What are the next steps here? And what did this entail? Thank you so much.

Erez Israeli: Yes. So on the launches this quarter, as I mentioned, we launched five products during the quarter. We kind of mentioned the names along the way. We’ll try to provide it to you in a second. As for the CRL, we got certain questions primarily about the CMC of the product. And we are planning to address that around the September timeframe. And to – and then, obviously, I’m assuming it’s a six months goal right after that.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tarang from Old Bridge. Please go ahead.

Tarang Agrawal: Hi. Congrats for extremely strong set of numbers by FY2024. Just a couple of questions. Capital expenditure stepped up quite a lot in over FY2023, FY2024. If I look at 2024 alone, roughly INR 2,700 crores of CapEx. So if you could just give us a sense in terms of a broad set of baskets where this INR 2,500 crores would have been deployed. So that’s number one. Second, till date, it’s between P&L and balance sheet, if you could give us a sense on what your cumulative investments in biosimilars has been? And third, just a general sense on where your overall biosimilar business is at?

Erez Israeli: So about CapEx. First of all, most of our CapEx is going towards expansion, let’s say, give or take around 75% of this is going to expansions. And normally, the other is going what we call maintenance. The maintenance is also whether you need to replace certain staff or related to compliance or investment in the digital, et cetera. Also, in the future, in terms of distribution of the CapEx also for – next year, we are investing primarily the CapEx in products that we want to launch and with that capacity, both in the API as well as in our injectable facilities. So more than 50% of the CapEx is going in that direction. In addition to that, we are building additional capacity in our biologics plant in Bachupally as well as in our APSL of services on both biologics and small molecules. So by and large, this is where the CapEx is going. Is it sufficient – I don’t remember the rest of the question.

Tarang Agrawal: Yes. This is all right. So when you say expansion, these are broad buckets. I mean, it’s going into API injectables, biologics and origin, right?

Erez Israeli: Correct.

Tarang Agrawal: Okay. If you could give us an update on your biosimilar business from here on? And what are your cumulative spend on this business till March 2024?

Erez Israeli: So the – in terms of our biosimilar, just to remind us all, we decided to focus on products that we have a chance to be first to market. And when we initiated that strategy, we cannot bypass the products that we – that has a chance – that we had the chance to be late to market. So our first meaningful products will come in 2027. And after that, more products will follow. Right now, we are not discussing specific names, but that’s the overall plan. What you can assume, and I mentioned it before, that if 20% is going to the R&D, this is give or take also at the level of flows that we have in the year because right now, we don’t have a meaningful sales to cover for it. And this is something that likely to be breakeven and beyond, be profitable once we will launch in FY2027, our first biosimilar in Europe and United States.

Tarang Agrawal: So therefore, would it be safe to presume an investment of anywhere between $50 million to $60 million per annum on biosimilars. Would that be a reasonable estimate from here on?

Erez Israeli: Yes, in the ballpark.

Tarang Agrawal: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.

Tushar Manudhane: Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, just on rituximab as far as Europe is concerned, where you can [indiscernible].

Operator: Tushar, the line for you seems to be a bad connection. I can’t hear you.

Erez Israeli: Can you repeat the question, please?

Operator: You were not audible, Tushar.

Tushar Manudhane: Is it better?

Operator: No, you seem to have a bad connection. I request you to please reestablish your connection and then get back in the queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nimish Mehta from Research Delta Advisors. Please go ahead. Nimish, the line for you has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.

Erez Israeli: Maybe you can move to the next one, yes.

Operator: Yes. We will move to the next question, which is from the line of Nitesh Dutt from Burman Capital. Please go ahead.