Sun Pharma aims to spend 7-8% of sales on R&D this fiscal

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd aims to spend 7-8 per cent of its sales in the current fiscal on research and development activities as it looks to further strengthen its product portfolio across therapeutic segments, a senior company official said on Monday.

Addressing shareholders during the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi said the company did well in all its geographies last fiscal, recording double-digit growth.

"Our R&D spending is expected to be 7-8 per cent of sales in 2023-24 with an increasing share of spending in specialty (drug segment) R&D," Shanghvi said.

The Mumbai-based drug maker had reported a global consolidated revenue of Rs 433 billion in FY23.

The Mumbai-based drug major spent about Rs 2,400 crore on R&D in 2022-23, which accounted for about 5.5 per cent of the sales as it continued to invest product pipeline for both global generics and specialty businesses.

Shanghvi said the expansion of its global specialty business is expected to continue going ahead.

"All our businesses are well-positioned, and we expect high-single-digit consolidated topline growth for FY24," he added.

The company continues to focus on improving manufacturing efficiencies and optimizing costs. "At year-end, Sun Pharma had a strong net cash position of about USD 1.5 billion," he stated.

According to Shanghvi, the domestic pharmaceutical market size is estimated to reach USD 35-39 billion by 2027, recording 7.5-10.5 per cent compounded annual growth.

Demographics and lifestyle changes, rising per capita income, growing incidence of chronic ailments, increasing access to modern medicines, and improving health insurance coverage will be key drivers of this growth, he added.